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HISTORICAL FACTS: 5 - Caught on Camera

“I was like, ‘Let’s freshen up the electric guitar.’ 60 years later, you’re still putting out tributes to the station wagon”: The story of John Mayer’s Fender fallout – and how it gave birth to the Stratocaster’s biggest rival

Mayer left Fender after his wishes for an elevated S-style fell on deaf ears – and he found the perfect partner in PRS and the Silver Sky

Guitar World

“I wanted to dislike it!” Is Joe Bonamassa warming to modeling amps? He’s taken a Fender Tone Master on tour

If a recent social media post is anything to go by, the tube amp traditionalist may be coming around to digital guitar tech

Guitar World

“I’ve got a little story about a chord you might like”: Paul McCartney is challenging fans to work out the mystery guitar chord that inspired his new album – and we’ve figured it out

The unusual chord that opens The Boys of Dungeon Lane has been fuelling a hearty debate. So, what is it?

Guitar World

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“It’s possible to play a great solo without many notes if the rhythm is interesting”: How to funk up your blues solos

Taking cues from John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix and Nile Rodgers, this lesson offers three examples of phrases that add rhythm and movement to blues

Guitar World

“Even though it’s a budget guitar, it’s great. Paul Stanley used to smash one up at the end of KISS shows”: The amps that defined punk, the custom electric that was “painted in a shed” – Bruce Watson on the gear behind Big Country’s sound

The Big Country guitarist pulls some choice guitars and amps out of the vault, and explains why the Esquire beats the Tele

Guitar World

“It’s a genuinely unique instrument – and it always raises a smile”: Nigel Tufnel's “World on Fire” guitar, used during Spinal Tap's Live Earth performance, is headed to auction

An Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette at its core, the guitar features a working thermometer and a snow globe containing a figurine of former US Vice President Al Gore

Guitar World

“He only ever said one thing to me about sounding like anyone he’d played with before”: Rowan Robertson on the key piece of advice he received from Ronnie James Dio on how to faithfully play Tony Iommi’s riffs

Though Robertson was only 17 at the time he was hired for Ronnie James Dio's band, the legendary frontman had the utmost confidence in him

Guitar World

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"Where many modeling amps of this ilk fail to impress me, I found the Reactor to be incredibly receptive, balanced and warm": Positive Grid Reactor 100 Intelligent Guitar Combo Amp review

Positive Grid is branching out from the market-conquering Spark family with a bold new lineup that could spell trouble for the Boss Katana

Guitar World

“A turning point for the industry”: TONE3000’s new A2 NAM modeling tech beat some huge hitters in a blind listening test – and it’s completely free to use

Open-source Architecture 2 is promising to deliver “the best sounding amp modeling technology in history”

Guitar World

“I was a child – he’d choose which records I would get royalties on and which I didn’t. He was stealing my money, and I didn’t realize it”: The untold story of “The Lost Beach Boy” David Marks

David Marks reflects on the surf-rock beginnings of one of the world's most beloved pop-rock institutions, recalling the good times, bad times, and his return to the fold

Guitar World

“I suspect Fender decided against building Thinlines with this specification because they would have been too expensive to manufacture”: What two 1967 prototypes tell us about the evolution of the Telecaster Thinline

Dave Davidson of Well Strung Guitars describes how, during 1967, Fender got busy developing an alternative to heavy ash Telecaster bodies

Guitar World

Positive Grid branches out from the Spark with the Reactor – an AI-powered combo that can generate tones from images and adapts to your playing

The firm’s first major foray outside of the Spark family could become a fierce new force in the smart amp market

Guitar World

“Damon got very good, so it was pretty hard to write with him around – especially when he was rejecting your songs”: How Graham Coxon came out from his Blur bandmate’s shadow

Noel Gallagher called him one of greatest guitar talents of his generation. Coxon explains why he doesn’t agree as he shares the origin story of his lost solo album and the future of Blur

Guitar World

“If anybody could play like that, they must be crazy”: How Dave Davies wrote the savage solo for the Kinks’ breakthrough hit

Davies debunks false claims that the track featured Jimmy Page and reveals how it all came about

Guitar World

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“If you think this is a bunch of throwaway crap to suck the dollar out of poor, unsuspecting Van Halen fans, it’s not”: Eddie Van Halen’s soon-to-be-released recordings are going to blow you away, according to Steve Lukather

The highly anticipated project could be the ultimate Eddie Van Halen honor record

Guitar World

“I did four or five songs, then Ozzy said, ‘Welcome aboard’. I would have loved to have spent more time with him”: Randy Rhoads was his guitar teacher. Then he ended up in Ozzy Osbourne’s band

Joe Holmes looks back on his time with Ozzy and David Lee Roth, and explains why his upcoming solo album, featuring former Ozzy band members, captures everything he’s learned up till now

Guitar World

“It’s a one-string instrument with a handle on it, and I hit it with a stick”: Les Claypool’s bonkers one-string leads the biggest (and strangest) bass releases of the month

May saw the reissue of Fender's best-selling bass, a custom Rickenbacker for Geddy Lee, and a supersized version of the daddy of all fuzz

Guitar World

“Quirky and off-the-wall, it’s waiting to throw a spanner in the works of your guitar tone”: Electro-Harmonix Pico Atomic Cluster review

EHX’s new Pico pedal is designed to deconstruct your tone to an atomic level

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Guitar World

“Everyone who is anyone has used one at some point in their careers”: The story of the Boss digital delay pedal that changed the world

Despite advances in technology, elite players such as Joe Bonamassa, Tom Morello and Brad Paisley still keep a DD-2 or DD-3 on their 'board

Guitar World

“He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and turned them all into classics”: 11 cover songs that Jimi Hendrix made his own – including one that became Eric Clapton’s favorite Hendrix track

Once Hendrix turned his Stratocaster upon a song it would never be the same again. Just ask Bob Dylan

Guitar World

“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

Bibb admits he won't be calling himself an electric guitar player anytime soon

Guitar World

“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

From The Rolling Stones to Julian Lage, Tamikrest to the Warning, this month's guitar greatness spanned many generations of players

Guitar World

“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

Jackson and Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland unveil the coolest metal guitar of the year, IK Multimedia go '60s Marshall mad, and someone put Korn's early sound in a pedal

Guitar World

“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

Duffy’s timing could hardly have been worse

Guitar World

“Jaco made a great contribution, but what came after was all these idiots trying to sound like him. That's why bass players today are so lame”: Bill Laswell gives his unfiltered verdict on modern bassists

The visionary producer also had his say on Lemmy, Paul Simon, and his failed studio session with Jaco Pastorius

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