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UNBELIEVABLE: Guitar world | History Defined

Before he went solo, Ronnie James Dio had already worked with two guitarists etched onto heavy metal’s Mount Rushmore. But players can also learn plenty from the oft-overlooked shredders who anchored his solo band

From a 17-year-old prodigy to a future stadium-conquering guitar superstar, Ronnie James Dio had a dream team of six-string sidekicks over the course of his solo career – and their contributions to his catalog should be essential listening for any aspiring metal guitarist

Guitar World

“The SG sound is very unique – it forces you to play to what you’re hearing”: Warren Haynes on the mid-’90s SG behind his early Gov’t Mule tone

It was July 1994, and Haynes was on the cover of GW with Dickey Betts and an early '90s '61 SG Reissue. He explains what happened to the guitar – and why he had it in the first place

Guitar World

“I thought it was a bit too bizarre, but you all went crazy for it”: The hottest new guitar gear releases of March 2026 – according to Guitar World readers

The five biggest gear drops of the past four weeks, as voted for by you

Guitar World

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“I didn’t expect this to inspire me so much”: Jackson finally releases Misha Mansoor’s Surfcaster – one of the most anticipated offset guitar releases of the modern era

Almost two years after the Periphery maestro first showed off his baritone Surfcaster, Jackson has made it available as a limited-edition custom shop model

Guitar World

“On our earlier recordings, we experimented with low tones that only dogs can hear”: Sunn O))) on the challenge of working with 130 guitar tracks and why their live shows are like jumping into a frozen lake

Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson on the drone pioneer's Sub Pop debut, the restorative but draining power of volume and the gear behind their sound

Guitar World

“It was a lot of trial and error with Dave – a lot of just trying to find out what worked, fine-tune it and then do it again”: Jimmie Vaughan on the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Top 40 hit that got Al Bundy – and Hollywood’s – seal of approval

The year was 1986, London was calling for Jimmie Vaughan, where album sessions alongside Dave Edmunds led to a classic LP, and this is how it all went down

Guitar World

“That way, I can bend notes the way I want, and it also saves my hands”: How Joe Perry is changing his guitar setup to battle the early signs of arthritis

Perry is adapting his setup to make sure he can move around the fretboard with ease

Guitar World

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“It will take time to build up the accuracy that the riff demands”: Welcome to Mike Stringer’s downpicking bootcamp

In his debut GW column, the prog-metal master teaches you the punishing seven-string string-skipping techniques behind Spiritbox’s Jaded

Guitar World

“After mine was stolen, I didn’t have time to go to the factory, so they just handed me this 10-string”: The 10-string oddity that became one of Joe Perry’s most iconic guitars – even though he hardly played it in Aerosmith

Perry and B.C. Rich go way back. The Aerosmith guitarist looks back on the most outlandish guitar the brand ever made him, the ’70s Bich 10 Supreme

Guitar World

“I can still see them shaking their heads. I knew I’d lost the gig right there”: Pepper Keenan recalls the moment he knew he’d failed his audition to be Metallica’s bassist

Keenan was one of many hopefuls to try out for the Metallica gig as James Hetfield and co looked to find Jason Newsted's replacement

Guitar World

“I look at my hands and say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do today’“: Keith Richards opens up on how age and arthritis has changed his approach to playing

His digits aren’t what they used to be, but that’s not keeping Keef away from his beloved guitars

Guitar World

“I loved the band with Hillel so much – all I could think about was trying to match that energy”: John Frusciante on the challenge of replacing Hillel Slovak in the Red Hot Chili Peppers – and why he’s still at the core of his guitar style today

The funk-rock guitar icon joined his favorite band at 18 years old, but finding his groove took time. He explains how studying Slovak helped him find his own voice – and ultimately made the Chili Peppers one of the biggest bands on the planet

Guitar World

“Brian Jones was the first steel slide player I heard. He was really in front of that game, and that’s what I really admired about him when we first started playing together”: Keith Richards pays tribute to Stones guitarists past and present

“Once I heard Brian playing Elmore James, I thought, ‘I’ve found a guy here who I can mess with’”

MusicRadar

“They gave me an MRI and said it looked like I’d been in a car crash”: Gary Holt once gave himself clinical-grade whiplash because he headbanged to his riffs too hard

The guitarist says he “dodged a bullet” by avoiding surgery

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“I quit playing music for two years. I was done. Then I got a call from Stone”: Mike McCready followed Duff McKagan to LA to make it big – but he nearly missed his shot in Seattle

Before Pearl Jam, the lead guitarist sought to make a success of his teenage hard-rock outfit, Shadow

Guitar World

“With the solo, my mindset is that we’re at the start of a musical journey, and it’s my mission to tell a story”: Jared James Nichols on his melodic soloing ideas every guitar player can take from Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa and SRV

In his latest Guitar World column, the blues powerhouse channels Slowhand (and uses his own track Threw Me to the Wolves) for a lesson in lyrical leads

Guitar World

“Brad said, ‘I know where it is.’ He opened up Guitar Player and it was there in a photo of Slash’s guitar collection”: The story of Joe Perry’s ’59 Les Paul Standard – his lost treasure and ultimate birthday gift

Joe Perry was forced to part with his beloved 'Burst in 1979, but it was his Aerosmith bandmate who found it again

Guitar World

“I laughed my head off! Like, ‘Oh my God, what have we spawned?’” Keith Richards shares his response to the Sunset Strip shredders of the 1980s

Richards never had any interest in becoming a lead player – and the early innovators of the shred movement did not change his mind

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Guitar World

“It was so heavy to lift as an 11-year-old”: Josh Homme’s first guitar amp wasn’t even a guitar amp

It was a choice that set the tone for a career full of left-field gear picks

Guitar World

“I spent so much time as a teenager just staring at this guitar”: Liquid Gold Teles, a $569 shred machine, bonkers synth pedals... here is all the gear that caught my eye this week – and the megabucks Flying V that changed Kirk Hammett's life

Fresh new drops from Charvel, Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and more...

Guitar World

“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

Matthieu Lucas from Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris gives Guitar World the lowdown on which guitars could likely break the Gilmour record one day

Guitar World

“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

This 1970s player is an influence to many, he says, but doesn’t get the credit he deserves

Guitar World

“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

The singer-songwriter has since come to regret the decision, even if his bank balance thanks him for it

Guitar World

“Instead of creating a polyphonic tuner itself, it simply knocked off Empower's patented device instead”: Behringer sues Boss over “knock off” polyphonic tuner

Behringer’s parent company claims its patented polyphonic tuner, the TC Electronic PolyTune, has been wrongly copied by Boss for four of its flagship amp modeler pedals

Guitar World

“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

When Richard and Linda Thompson entered the studio with Gerry Rafferty they thought only good could come of it. But creative differences saw the songs shelved... At least for a time

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