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March 2026

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103 articles

March 20
- “I look down, I see the empty pit, and I see a bass guitar against the wall. I said, ‘Right, I’m gonna show you guys what I’ve got’”: When a teenage Suzi Quatro laid down a marker by jamming with Jeff Beck and Cozy Powell
- “He was one of a kind”: Alabama guitar legend Wayne Perkins – who played with the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and Joni Mitchell – dies at 74
- “We opened the case, and I gave him the guitar”: Richie Sambora reunited with stolen Gibson Explorer after 40 years
- What makes a guitar worth $14.6 million?
- “We’ve been intensifying our efforts. We finally hit upon a recipe that we loved”: This new 75th Anniversary Telecaster features a genuine Fender first – and it could change the face of Teles to come
- “The moment we started playing with it, we just laughed”: Viral duo Angine de Poitrine have become one of the most talked-about bands on the planet – and microtonal guitar has been the key to their unlikely success
- “Out of an abundance of caution”: AC/DC’s Stevie Young admitted to hospital in Argentina
March 19
- “If it was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million dollars easy for sure”: Guitar expert reveals the guitars that could surpass the new auction record held by David Gilmour’s Black Strat
- “My therapy was literally locking myself in a room for three hours in the morning”: Radiohead's Ed O'Brien on using guitar playing as therapy in the midst of depression
- “Got my dream amp!” Gary Moore's go-to Marshall head has been bought by another ’80s rock hero
- “He’s very underrated. If you asked David Gilmour, he’d probably say, ‘Yeah, he’s my idol!’” Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt names prog’s great unsung guitar hero
- “Instead of two or three pickups, we have a few dozen that are only picking up one string each”: This guitar has 64 pickups – and it could revolutionize guitar recording
- “One of the best gigs I've ever been involved in”: Brian May returns to the stage for a fiery three-song cameo with Benson Boone – then hands him the Red Special
March 18
- “It’s not the kind of music I want to make anymore”: Grace Bowers explains why she doesn’t want to be known as a blues guitarist
- “I won’t go through treatment. I’ve lived the life of 10 men and will die with dignity”: The Wildhearts frontman Ginger Wildheart reveals cancer diagnosis
- “Legendary San Dimas performance at a price point that'll blow your mind”: Charvel launches the Standard Series with a $599 Tele that promises to play like a pro
- “The boldest evolution yet”: Gretsch makes a play for the best bang-for-your-buck single-cut with the Premier Jet
- “I just wasn’t ready to spend $250,000 on a guitar at that stage in my life and my career”: Butch Walker turned down the opportunity to buy the Greeny Les Paul before Kirk Hammett bought it
- “I broke a string at a show. My brother was playing a V, and I had to take a solo, and he quickly gave me his guitar. That’s when I went, ‘Wow’”: Gibson Custom recreates Michael Schenker’s iconic 1971 Flying V
- With £542 off an ESP LTD, the Thomann Spring Sale is just the boost you need to pull you out of the winter lull – save up to 60% on a huge range of guitars, pedals, and amps
- “This may be the best album Peter’s ever made”: Peter Frampton announces first album in 16 years – and it features an all-star cast
- “We played a song or two, and I said, ‘Hey, you guys want to jam on some Isley Brothers?’ Nobody laughed”: Les Claypool looks back on his disastrous Metallica audition
March 17
- “The Telecaster is like the heart and soul of rock and roll music”: Fender celebrates 75 years of the Telecaster with 5 new models – including the return of a cult classic and some Tele firsts
- “I literally cried tears of joy”: After years of searching, YouTuber finally uncovers the identity of Kurt Cobain’s mystery In Utero amp
- “Instead of creating a polyphonic tuner itself, it simply knocked off Empower's patented device instead”: Behringer sues Boss over “knock off” polyphonic tuner
March 16
- “When the song was done, I turned to everybody and said, ‘I think this song is going to be massive’”: Don't Stop Believin' is Journey's signature song – now, the guitar that was used to record it has been sold for over a quarter of a million dollars
- “We were still gluing the fur on the tuning keys when the FedEx driver showed up”: Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac and ZZ Top basses top the biggest four-string sales at historic Jim Irsay auction
- “When I was seven years old, my dad put a guitar in my arms – it became everything to me”: Miles Caton, Buddy Guy and Brittany Howard lead all-star Sinners performance at the Oscars – as composer Ludwig Göransson pays tribute to the guitar
- “We knew that if Tiger went somewhere else, it was most likely going to be left behind glass”: Derek Trucks plays Jerry Garcia’s ‘Tiger’ guitar on stage just hours after it sold for $12 million
- “One of the greatest rock albums of all time”: Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent is charging $2 million for his new album
March 15
- "We let John take this out and beat it up for a while. This is about as robust a unit as we can make – because it needed to be”: Inside Fender’s B-Bender revival – and the making of its very first in-house design
March 14
- “One of the coolest things we saw at Fender’s invite-only NAMM event”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including the answer to all your modeler tone woes
- “My comfort zone is big volume and lots of blues”: Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell has died aged 64
- “We thought, ‘He’s a massively successful artist – what could possibly go wrong?’ We really didn’t like the results, so we didn’t give permission for it to be released”: The folk-rock album recorded with an ’80s mega-star that never saw the light of day
March 13
- “Elevates one of Gibson’s most beloved modern designs”: Gibson revives and refreshes its Songwriter Recording Artist acoustic range
- “She told me, ‘That Les Paul’s too heavy for you, honey. You’re not gonna be able to do that.’ So she took me to Norm’s Rare Guitars”: When Bonnie Raitt took Melissa Etheridge guitar shopping – and convinced her to swap her Les Paul for a Strat
- “Instead of firing me and getting somebody who could really play, he would throw me solos every night”: How John Mayer helped Doug Pettibone sharpen his pedal steel skills
- “People wanna assume the worst and say he’s some kind of dictator and forced me to do it. It was totally not like that”: Steve Di Giorgio sets the record straight on what it was like to sideman for Dave Mustaine and Megadeth
- “Inspired by the creativity, community, and chaos of the Seattle music scene”: Mike McCready has spent 20 years making a rock opera that explores an alternate history of grunge – and it’s finally ready
- “An evocative track reflecting the social and political unrest of Britain”: The Specials’ Ghost Town bass fetches thousands at auction – having been bought for just £200
- “Lot after lot we felt like we were making history”: World record for most expensive guitar shattered three times in one night as Jim Irsay auction sees David Gilmour's Black Strat fetch $14.5m
March 12
- The Jim Irsay Collection sale live: David Gilmour's Black Strat sells for record-shattering $14.5 million in the biggest guitar auction in history
- “I threw my guitar off mid strum, dove into the crowd and began strangling him to the ground”: Billy Corgan on the first time he met future Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur
- “I kept saying, ‘I’m not the guy. Call Nuno’”: Joe Satriani put Nuno Bettencourt’s name forward for failed EVH tribute tour with Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth
- Who's the best guitar player you've ever seen live?
- “It’s a really good guitar, especially for the price”: Jake E. Lee has added Yungblud’s signature guitar to his collection
- “I was the only guy playing that guitar. It was their version of a semi-hollow”: How Robben Ford helped Fender design their short-lived answer to the ES-335
- “It was just unbelievable. I’ve literally never heard anything like it my whole life”: Jacob Collier on what happened when he gave his 5-string acoustic to Julian Lage and Chris Martin
March 11
- “I set about them with a wood burner”: Pat Metheny asks Ibanez to send him “cheap” versions of his own signature guitar – to turn them into artworks
- “I don’t think anyone has changed the world as much with their guitar”: Grammy-nominated Malian changemaker Fatoumata Diawara reveals her biggest guitar hero
- “Using the same techniques, and even some of the same machines”: Gibson unearths the only known Kalamazoo factory footage from the ‘Golden Era’ of guitar building
- “Bridging the gap between digital rigs and real valve amps”: Victory says its new PowerValve 200 is a better companion for your amp modeler than any FRFR cab could ever be
- “I’d wake up in the morning and I wouldn’t be able to move my pinky. I’d think, ‘Is this the end?’” Joe Satriani opens up on the hand injury that forced him to relearn how to play his songs
- “This guy comes over, leaning on me. He said, ‘I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt’”: That time Eddie Van Halen visited the EVH workshop while they were building the Wolfgang
- My highest-rated beginner acoustic guitar just had 15% knocked off in Amazon's Spring Sale – alongside major Squier savings on the Debut and Affinity series'
March 10
- “I'm probably gonna get 150 guitarists telling me how I'm doing this wrong, but this is just what works for me”: Samantha Fish reveals the “cheat” she uses to emulate a pedal steel guitar
- “I had no idea who they were. My manager said, ‘You should talk to this guy named Trent Reznor’”: How Adrian Belew ended up working with Nine Inch Nails
- “I freaked out. I couldn’t believe it. Nobody else was doing that at the time”: The Beatles made the Leslie speaker an iconic guitar tone. But a pioneering “all-female” rock band were one of the first to take it out on the road
- “There are a lot of amazing guitars, but none are as versatile as the Telecaster”: Fender’s radical John Osborne Telecaster brings the B-Bender back to its ranks for the first time in over 20 years
- These rare Ibanez discounts on electrics, acoustics, basses, and pedals are amongst the biggest bargains for guitarists in the UK Amazon Spring Deal Days sale
- “I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins
- “Reinforces the value of originality”: Fender secures legal ruling to protect the Stratocaster body design
March 9
- Janelle Monáe’s new guitar of choice is the cheapest Epiphone Les Paul ever released
- The most advanced lap steel ever? Verso looks to revolutionize the lap steel slide guitar with the Log – a radical new take with freely movable pickups
- “One of the great troublemakers in guitar history”: Eastwood bravely recreates Mike Bloomfield’s mangled Bob Dylan Telecaster – the guitar that killed folk
- “All of the guys in Metallica, except for the guitar player, told me what a great guitar player I was”: Candlebox guitarist on touring with Metallica and Aerosmith in the early ’90s – and receiving the ultimate praise from his heroes
- “I was a little uncomfortable, to be honest”: Why Myles Kennedy felt uneasy using Jeff Buckley’s Telecaster to play Hallelujah
- “I never know what might come across my desk, but this was a taker”: Steve Vai has recorded a new solo over Van Halen’s Jump – which has been crowned the official World Cup 2026 anthem
March 8
- “He was in a terrible factory accident that cut his fingers off at the knuckles”: Melissa Etheridge reveals the most important lesson she learned from her “scary” first guitar teacher
- “I never saw myself as a bassist. I haven’t played bass since the last Sonic Youth gig”: Why Kim Gordon has stopped playing the bass – despite being an icon of the instrument
March 7
- “It offers the holy grail amp sounds beloved by John Mayer, SRV, and more for just $150. A must-try for Dumble fans”: All the new guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including the angriest fuzz pedal you will ever come across
- “He goes, ‘The audition is in Nashville tomorrow. Here’s 45 songs you’ve got to know by then’”: Her manager didn’t like him. But Doug Pettibone grinded to land his dream gig with Lucinda Williams
March 6
- “A compact powerhouse that turns inspiration into endless possibilities”: Laney unveils the Prism-Mini, a feature-packed modeling amp and Bluetooth speaker that looks to steal the Spark Mini's crown
- "The sound of six figures”: IK Multimedia models two vintage – and VERY expensive – Dumble amps for the $249 TONEX One Double Special
- “I got a call from a manager who was trying to drag him out of obscurity. We jammed daily, but he was away with the fairies”: Rick Fenn on the time he tried to help bring Peter Green back into the limelight
- “We’re in tune, baby. It’s literally a dream come true”: Blind guitarist couldn’t tune his guitar without help – now a vibrating tuner pedal has changed his life
- “I said, ‘Where is it from?’ He says, ‘I don’t know. It’s been here for the last 20 or 25 years...’” Jake E. Lee was on tour with Ozzy Osbourne when he stumbled upon the gear bargain of a lifetime
- “I can put them in every guitar, and it’s gonna sound exactly like I need it to”: Metallica has rolled out something special to help celebrate 50 years of EMG
- “These dominated stages behind some of the biggest names in rock”: Mesa/Boogie brings back the fire-breathing Triple Rectifier in a classic finish – reviving one of the most impactful amps it ever created
- “A detailed, room-filling tone from a remarkably compact body”: Laney continues to redefine the competitive battery-powered amp market with its small footprint powerhouse, the PRISM-MINI
March 5
- "I was just shy of crying from pain that was in my right arm. I couldn’t even move it": Stephen Carpenter sheds light on the health struggles that have impacted his playing
- Which guitarist should every beginner listen to?
- “I was asked to sit in with Buddy Guy. John handed me his 1930s National and smiled while I struggled to get anything out of it”: Joe Bonamassa leads tributes for musical troubadour John Hammond, who has died aged 83
- “They already had Buckethead. I was thinking, ‘Who’s the craziest and the best?’ I knew there was only one guy”: Joe Satriani on the guitar ace he recommended for the Guns N’ Roses gig
March 4
- “The most organic amp tones ever captured”: Kemper rolls out the latest evolution of its Profiling tech – and this update is free
- “He was horrified, saying, ‘Doug, your tone is atrocious!’”: Sideman to the stars Doug Rappoport reveals the classic rock icon who persuaded him to up his gear game
- “I felt like I was being used. I’m not a puppet that you can put your hand up its ass and make do stuff”: The signature gear Josh Homme turned down
- “I would have loved to get together with Wolfgang”: Eddie Van Halen once asked Paul Gilbert to give Wolfgang a guitar lesson – here’s why it never happened
- “To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings”: Why Prince turned down a deal with Guitar Hero
- “A collaboration that’s nothing short of extraordinary”: Pat Metheny, Al Di Meola and more of the biggest names in jazz and fusion are playing in London this year
March 3
- “A long-term model to support the future of live music”: Marshall pledges to donate a percentage of gear sales to support grassroots venues
- “Don Henley’s looking at me like I’m crazy, and finally I said, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘I thought you were a bluegrasser…’” Vince Gill on the importance of versatility – and how the Eagles enabled him to flex his hidden rock chops
- “It turns out you all really love a wildcard”: The hottest new guitar gear releases of February 2026 – according to Guitar World readers
- “Combining two of my favorite things”: Teemu Mäntysaari shreds Megadeth… while ice skating
- “You never want to pull out cases and have no recollection of when, where or how you acquired it”: Joe Bonamassa is cutting back on his gear collecting habit
- “I gave it away… I thought I didn’t need it any more”: Cult Japanese guitar hero Masayoshi Takanaka gave away his iconic surfboard guitar. Now he’s got it back for his first-ever world tour at 72 years old
- Eric Clapton announces US tour – and he’s bringing another blues guitar hero on the road with him
March 2
- “I took the one lesson and left and never went back. I got to learn how to play guitar by myself”: Joan Jett on defying stereotypes and teaching herself guitar by playing along to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath records
- “That’s why I don’t like old Les Pauls”: The reason Adrian Smith isn’t keen on some vintage Gibsons
- “He is truly one of the best players in the new generation”: Matteo Mancuso names the emerging virtuoso that you need to know about
- “One day, my mom went to Costco and was like, ‘They’ve got these guitars on sale. Let’s get it for your dad’”: Kiki Wong on how a cheap Yamaha and a Metallica classic changed her musical trajectory
- Zakk Wylde leads all-star Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the BRIT Awards – with the help of Robert Trujillo and Robbie Williams
- “Steven grabbed it and wanted to throw it out into the audience. I had to wrestle him for it”: That time Joe Perry had to rescue a broken guitar from Steven Tyler in the middle of an Aerosmith gig