Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

REVEALED: 16 - The Real Truth

“I think they sound in between a Fender and a Gibson”: Blues ace Larry McCray names the unsung guitar brand that convinced him to switch after a life of playing Gibsons

McCray says this brand is the perfect middle ground between two of the industry's big guns

Guitar World

“Bob Dylan had me, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ronnie Wood, Levon Helm and Paul Butterfield. It wasn’t the greatest music I ever played”: Bob Margolin on The Last Waltz, the jam party afterwards and his years with Muddy Waters

Blues veteran recalls the “reefer” moment that landed him a job with his hero, the Gibson archtop that’s seen in the movie, and how he stayed friends with Waters despite business matters

Guitar World

“The modelling offers sumptuous guitar tones with plenty of variety”: Blackstar Beam Solo review

Blackstar may be late to the guitar headphone amp party, but its offering has some seriously good sounds

MusicRadar

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Slash and Bruno Mars jam Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit – as Yungblud, Brandi Carlile and more feature during billionaire’s star-studded Christmas party

A legion of music greats paid homage to some of rock’s greatest songs at a glitzy private event

Guitar World

“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

Urban says the guitar – which was previously unowned by a Cinderella guitarist – is unlike any other in his collection

Guitar World

“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

Renowned singer-songwriter JUKJAE has a new signature Strat that features some pretty tasty specs

Guitar World

“These are classy sounds with no danger of single coil hum... a near-perfect function-gig guitar”: PRS Fiore HH Satin review

PRS’s under-the-radar Fiore, the signature guitar of Mark Lettieri, gets a dual humbucking makeover and packs serious punch

MusicRadar

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

“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

Before launching PRS, Smith had another plan, and some high-profile backers

Guitar World

“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

It's pedal mania this week, with new drops from Strymon, JHS Pedals, and DigiTech – but a long-awaited replica of Tom Morello's legendary Rage Against the Machine guitar steals the spotlight

Guitar World

“I wanted it to be a workhorse I could bash around, beat up, hit with metal pipes and get thrown into kegs without breaking in half”: The making of Jim Root’s Telecaster, the guitar that brought Fender into the modern age

Some metal players prefer the traditional high-performance brands. Others favor medieval shapes. Not Root. The Slipknot guitarist wanted something old-school, classy… indestructible

Guitar World

“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

Reverb's end-of-year sales stats make for interesting reading with regard to the current state of the amp modeler vs. tube amp debate

Guitar World

“It was the worst guitar I’d ever played. I’d spent all my money making it. I was stuck with it. So I started writing songs”: Arm the Homeless was a disaster, then it changed rock history. Tom Morello reveals how Fender replicated its misfit charms

Arm the Homeless is synonymous with the Rage Against the Machine firebrand and one of the most iconic electric guitars of all time. Morello explains why, after 30 years, he’s finally getting sentimental about his “artistic co-worker” – and the one thing that separates the Fender replica from the original

Guitar World

“One of the best-sounding headphone amps for guitar I’ve had my hands on”: Blackstar Beam Solo review

Blackstar enters a very busy market with their take on the ubiquitous headphone amp for guitar

Guitar World

“There was a guy checking out people who were coming in, and he’d go over the microphone, ‘Now here’s Elton John and his band!’”: Davey Johnstone on guitar shopping with Elton John – and how he ended up with his iconic Les Paul Custom

Johnstone says some of his best guitars came via the kindness of Elton John as he recalls one surreal day in the legendary NYC gear institution Manny's and the unexpected gift of a Clapton Strat

MusicRadar

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

MusicRadar

“The ‘Arm the Homeless’ guitar has been my comrade for life in the sonic sphere. It allowed me to find myself as an artist”: Tom Morello’s favourite electric has just been recreated by Fender

We have all seen this guitar. We have all heard it. Now we can buy it, and it has the same off-brand build and graphic finish as the original

Guitar World

“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

Five years in the making, the Rage Against the Machine guitar anti-hero’s most iconic instrument has been replicated by Fender – and even Morello admits he can’t tell the difference

Guitar World

“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

During the early days of his career, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist was far from a gearhead – but an old Fender changed his tune

Guitar World

“It’s like getting a pre-washed pair of jeans: they’re broken in so they’re comfortable right out of the store”: The making of the American Professional Classic series – the brand-new “lived-in” (but not relic’d) US Fender line

More aged nitro finishes and a new US-made line-up that pares back the modernisms. Are our tastes changing? Max Gutnik, chief product officer at FMIC, tells all

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“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

James Brown bought the bass sometime in 1970 for his young protégé, William Earl Collins, better known as Bootsy Collins, and it would go on to be played by another one of his bassists, Fred Thomas

Guitar World

“Rickenbacker had a doubleneck guitar and bass, so I bought one. Then Fender came to me and said, ‘Why are you playing that?’” How Moody Blues bassist John Lodge found another gear with a Fender double-neck that was half P-Bass/half Telecaster

Having anchored the Moody Blues since the ’60s, the late John Lodge had a VIP seat for the Austin Powers-like era that made London the capital of cool

Guitar World

“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

A landmark update for the Tone Master Pro, a new digital 5150III combo, and a signature capsule for Iron Maiden all landed this week

Guitar World

“You can get some very mournful sounds out of it as well as in‑your-face. It’s a real old battle-axe”: Gary Moore’s 1963 Telecaster is modded and thrashed to death – and it’s got a tone pot that behaves like a wah

Before it was auctioned for just under $69,000, we take a closer look at one of the lesser-spotted electrics in Moore’s collection, with Bonham’s Steve Clarke sharing its story

Guitar World

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

New amps, cabs, a raft of effects, and some big quality of life updates keep the modeler’s talons sharp

MusicRadar

“It was pretty much written in a day. I knew I had something quite special. Then the next day we played it with the band and it sounded like a bag of…”: How Neil Finn created the beautiful ballad that gave Crowded House a global smash hit

"Hey now, hey now..."

Guitar World

“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

The three channel amp is a lightweight reinvention of Eddie Van Halen's iconic 5150III in a digital combo form

1 … 15 16 17 18

People

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Organisations

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Topics

Places

Fourteen days free

Download the app

One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.