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MYSTERIOUS: 3 - You Need To See This

“I said, ‘Rick, you think we should take a break?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we got it on tape three hours ago – we just like hearing you guys play!’”: ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons describes Rick Rubin as a “peculiar” kind of producer

Plus: how the Texan trio created something new out of an old hip-hop track

MusicRadar

“It suffered a broken headstock, was completely refinished, refretted and had P-90s replaced with humbuckers”: Untangling the history of Jeff Beck’s Oxblood Les Paul, the most expensive Gibson Les Paul ever sold at auction

Will we ever know the true story of this fabled guitar? For some it’s iconic, for others it was simply a cobbled-together working tool for a master

Guitar World

“Originally retailed for around $250, they can now fetch up to 2,500 times that”: 1959 Gibson 'Burst Les Pauls sell for a king's ransom, and have been played and cherished by everyone from Jimmy Page to Billy Gibbons – but what exactly makes them special?

Widely considered to be the Holy Grail for guitar enthusiasts and collectors, 'Bursts feature on many of the most important rock albums ever made. So what exactly went into the secret sauce?

Guitar World

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“I was playing the Fender Strat that Jimi Hendrix gave me. We wound up plugging the guitar straight into the board. That’s why it’s such a clean tone on that track”: Billy Gibbons on the making of ZZ Top's greatest blues song

"For some reason the guitar wasn’t working through the amp," Gibbons recalled

MusicRadar

“My dad stepped in to greet the ensemble – and then in came The King”: Billy Gibbons shares the story of the “treasured moment” he sat in on a B.B. King session – as a child

Long before he got the chance to pick it up for himself, the ZZ Top man found himself in a truly formative session with an icon of electric guitar

Guitar World

“One heck of a rock ’n’ roll vision that sounds glorious and has huge tonal flexibility. Oh, and it doesn’t look like a Fender!” Newman Honeycomb Senior review

It started with a five-string, now the UK-made Newman range has a fully formed six-string with dual swappable pickups and oh-so-’70s credentials

Guitar World

“We missed him and are looking forward to turning it up and rocking out with him”: ZZ Top confirm Frank Beard is back

“Welcome back, pardner” says Billy Gibbons

MusicRadar

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"Driving in the middle of the night in North Ontario, someone flags us down. At that same moment, I smell smoke": Six things you didn't know about The Damn Truth

They were saved by the rock community, they’re produced byBob Rock and dug by Billy Gibbons. They're Canadian rockers The Damn Truth

Louder

“We haven’t broken a string on a Les Paul for more than three years”: Joe Bonamassa swears by this easy string-saving hack – which was inspired by Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons

Bonamassa’s go-to stringing method for his Les Pauls improves durability – and helps achieve a slinkier feel

Guitar World

“Dime is in there. I have a big Eddie Van Halen influence. The same goes for Eric Clapton. It all channels back to the blues”: Mark Morton explains why he’s jamming with Grace Bowers and Jason Isbell on his solo album – and those Gibson signature rumors

His second solo album, Without The Pain, features Troy Sanders, Jason Isbell, Jared James Nichols, Grace Bowers and a stack of guitars from his frighteningly valuable collection

Guitar World

"We were just hanging out on the beach and sipping cool libations; Keith Richards was totally living the rock’n’roll lifestyle": Billy Gibbons’ wild tales of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters and Ministry

Meet the only man to have played with Hendrix, the Stones and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback

Louder

ZZ Top add yet more dates to ever-expanding Elevation tour as Frank Beard continues to miss shows

46 shows already played on ZZ Top's mammoth Elevation tour, 63 more to go

Louder

“To be honest, I didn’t like Stevie’s tone as much in the heavy Dumble period. It sounded a little tight to me”: Ian Moore on jamming with the Stones, writing with Billy Gibbons, and discussing those SRV comparisons – with Stevie Ray Vaughan

The SRV disciple admits he confused people by moving from Texas blues to art rock, but believes his skills are only increasing, despite a neurological condition that means he can barely speak

Guitar World

“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

Nugent has just launched his most recent project – the Nuge Vault – which includes never-before-seen or heard concert footage and archival audio

Guitar World

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Louder

“There was chicken-wire around the stage. Al Jourgensen was climbing around like a caged beast. I knew this was a guy for me”: Billy Gibbons’ wild tales of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Muddy Waters and Ministry

Meet the only man to have played with Hendrix, the Stones and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback

Guitar World

“I played Brian Setzer’s personal guitars – the pickups give you more dynamic control. I thought, ‘I have to recreate this!’” How TV Jones revived That Great Gretsch Sound – despite being an underdog in the pickup world

One persona’s small-shop attitude and one-to-one service secured his company’s place in a challenging market, and helped revitalize the Gretsch brand

Guitar World

“I said, ‘The only way we can play 40 minutes is if we include Purple Haze.’ This guy grabbed me and said, ‘You got a lot of nerve!’” Billy Gibbons once covered Jimi Hendrix hits while supporting Hendrix on tour – and the guitar hero watched

Few players would have had the nerves to cover Hendrix while supporting him on tour, but Gibbons is made of sterner stuff – and the bold move sparked a lasting friendship

Guitar World

“This is basically the single-coil equivalent of what Eddie Van Halen did when he wired a humbucker directly to the volume control on his Frankenstein guitar”: Why the Fender Esquire remains a stone-cold classic

Loved by Billy Gibbons, Steve Cropper and Jeff Beck, the Fender Esquire is one of those guitars that have stood the test of time and proved that sometimes one pickup is all you need

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Guitar World

“Would I play it for a whole show? Absolutely not! I’m so happy to get that thing off. It’s brutal”: ZZ Top’s Elwood Francis on his latest weird bass acquisition – the 15-string ‘High Selecta’ bass

The guitar tech-turned-band member already struggled with a 17-string monstrosity, before adding a 15-string to his arsenal – and says he can’t forget his days cleaning the band’s fuzzy guitars

Guitar World

“Whenever I’d see him play live it was an off-the-rack Strat. He was never one to say, ‘I’ve got to play that’”: Joe Perry says he was planning to take Jeff Beck’s Strat on tour with Aerosmith –but its owner was the only special thing about it

The Aerosmith great been discussing friendship with the late, great Beck – and says he almost took his Strat on tour last year, before the shows were cancelled

Louder

Las Vegas honours ZZ Top icon with special ceremony for 'Billy Gibbons Day'

Billy Gibbons' home town of Las Vegas, Nevada, rolls out the red carpet with City Hall ceremony for ZZ Top star

Guitar World

“The first big gig for Starship was opening for Skynyrd in Florida in front of like 30,000 people. I had all these note-for-note solos, going, ‘God, I hope I nail these!’” Alastair Greene played sideman to rock greats –before he came back to the blues

The guitarist recalls the stress of his no rehearsal debut for Starship, learning lessons from Robin Trower and growing up with Seymour Duncan

Guitar World

“This is like Santana’s Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock or Hendrix’s Machine Gun, an act of freeform radicalism”: The best guitar solos of 2024

From a supernova of tapping and pitch-shifted metal guitar anarchy to all-star team-ups, here is your year in lead guitar – featuring Mdou Moctar, Diamond Rowe and some dudes named Satriani and Vai…

BANG Premier

Matt Sorum rejected guest spot with Guns N' Roses

Matt Sorum "declined" a guest spot on Guns N' Roses' reunion tour.

Guitar World

“I only picked up guitar in the first place to impress my father. I didn’t have a true desire to play that great players like Joe Bonamassa did”: Billy Corgan opens up on his guitar insecurities and being cast as the Smashing Pumpkins’ “big, bad Dracula”

On Aghori Mhori Mei, the Smashing Pumpkins recapture the vibe, feel and tones of their classic early ’90s LPs. Corgan explains how, why – and what took them so long

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