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.

UNBELIEVABLE: Guitar world | History Defined

"We were trying to poison the mainstream." How a 17-year-old schoolboy who played guitar "like the devil" saved one of Britain's best-loved bands, and stole David Bowie's heart

Suede's Coming Up laughed in the faces of everyone who believed that they would be lost following the exit of guitar hero Bernard Butler

Louder

Phil X on the time his pedals died moments before opening for Steel Panther: “Guys, we don’t have overdrive tonight”

The guitarist was going through a battery phase when a forgetful tech left him in the lurch

Guitar World

“They were the weirdest things. He was asking me, ‘What do you think I should play over this stuff?’” When Joe Satriani got an exclusive preview of new Metallica material during lessons with his student Kirk Hammett

As the …And Justice for All arrangements grew crazier, Hammett sought help from the master

Guitar World

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

“Each pedal offers a wide range of variation within andmaybe beyond its allotted task”: Thorn Soundlabs Flex Series pedals review

This new range of pedals straight out of Music City, USA, is designed for flexibility – meet the Bad Cash, Silver Spurs, Black Swamp, The FreaQ, Steam andTremonator

Guitar World

My pick of the best guitar gear launched this week: holy grail tube tones, Sleep Token’s debut signature collab and a guitar that might be a bass

All the big new drops from PRS Guitars, Charvel, Jackson, Gibson, Friedman Amplification and much more

Guitar World

“If I had a perfect Strat, I’d take off a volume and a tone knob – because I’m a dreadful man – just to make it like a Tele”: Graham Coxon on the perfection of the Telecaster (and why you shouldn’t lend him your Strat)

The Blur guitarist reflects on his “wooden wife” –and the charms of the Tele’s weird headstock

Guitar World

“He said, ‘The thing was made wrong in the first place!’ I joked, ‘Let me see you build a vibrato contraption that works!’” How Merle Travis pushed Paul Bigsby to one-up Gibson with his iconic vibrato

The country guitar giant was possibly the first to ever try out the game-changing piece of guitar hardware, and its invention was born out of a challenge he set for his friend

Guitar World

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

“Vintage guitars that are too nice repel me – I have a 1945 Martin, and it sounded good, but it was like sunlight to a vampire”: Brian Fallon on what makes for guitar greatness, and the most fundamental lick

With new solo album Not Bad For New Jersey out next month, the Gaslight Anthem frontman checks in and discusses his love for the Telecaster, and Keith Richards

Guitar World

My pick of the best guitar gear launched this week – including an all-new species of pedal

All the big new drops from Epiphone, Death By Audio, Gretsch, Charvel, and much more

Guitar World

“He said, ‘You sound like Jimi Hendrix!’ I said, ‘Jimi who?’” How Buddy Guy first encountered Jimi Hendrix

In 1967, Guy was not nearly as famous as the A-list blues-rock guitarists who took cues from his stinging phrases, piercing volume, and embrace of feedback

Guitar World

“My hands just wouldn’t work. There was no way I could play the guitar. It was pretty scary”: Rockabilly icon Brian Setzer on his recovery from the autoimmune condition that stopped him playing guitar

The Stray Cats frontman says he is “98 per cent” recovered but is playing as good as he ever did

MusicRadar

What Ritchie Blackmore thinks of Yngwie Malmsteen: “He’s probably the best at what he does and – for what it’s worth – the fastest”

As Malmsteen’s guitar hero, Blackmore’s fingerprints are all over the Swedish shredder’s gear choices and repertoire

Guitar World

Norman Harris on the future of Norman’s Rare Guitars and why he finally decided to sell: “When you’re faced with a major health scare, things become a lot more real”

The man behind behind Tarzana, California’s most famous guitar store discusses his legacy, the vintage market today and where it’s headed in the future

Guitar World

“My hands started shaking as soon as I began recording. We weren’t talking about it or rehearsing – we were actually doing it”: Vivian Campbell on joining Dio just before recording their classic debut album

Campbell was thrown in at the deep end when he wound up working with Ronnie James Dio on Holy Diver

Guitar World

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“There’s a subtle slickness to what we do. We love session guys and have respect for Toto and the Wrecking Crew”: Meet Robert Jon and the Wreck, the rock fanatics who sound like they rolled out of Georgia in ’82

Eddie Van Halen, the Allmans, Tom Petty… The list of influences is long and it all goes into the Orange County rocker's ’70s-flavored stew

Guitar World

Carlos Alomar’s hazy first encounter with Paul McCartney: “Paul turned his back to me to get something. What emerged was a perfectly rolled ganja joint”

The session veteran provided some finishing tracks on Press to Play after a rather indulgent first encounter bonding with the Beatle

Guitar World

Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride on sharing the stage with Ritchie Blackmore: “If I can play that well when I’m that age, I’ll be happy. People should look at it for what it was – a magical night”

Deep Purple’s current guitar player was caught off-guard when the band got the call from Blackmore. But as he tells Guitar World, he was very happy to be his rhythm guitarist that night

Guitar World

“The studio manager came out with a guitar case and said, ‘We have something here that Jimi might have wanted you to have’”: Peter Frampton on how he ended up with one of Jimi Hendrix’s most experimental instruments

Frampton used the surprise gift when he was playing alongside David Bowie

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“We were opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. I told the guys, ‘I’ll go out there and blow for 60 seconds, then we’ll go into the first tune.’ I hit the first chord and my Marshall blew up”: Richie Sambora on Bon Jovi's nightmare arena debut

Reflecting on the experience decades later, Sambora said that – embarrassing as they are in the moment – mishaps like that are “what shape you as a pro”

Guitar World

“He stopped me after 15 seconds, visibly irritated, before grabbing my hand and filing down my nails to a good angle”: How Angine de Poitrine’s eccentric guitar teacher shaped their oddball sound

The “highly strung” Frank Zappa nut was an imposing figure, but a guitar hero in his students’ eyes

Guitar World

“I was just stroking Hamer, to be honest!” Brad Gillis on the story behind his 1985 custom Hamer S-style

We revisit February 1989, when Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson of Night Ranger appeared on the hot-pink cover of GW

MusicRadar

“This short and highly strung man in cowboy boots lit a hand-rolled smoke in a little room, asking me to play something”: How did Angine de Poitrine get so very weird? Khn’s maverick but brilliant guitar teacher might explain a lot

Forcing students to practise, encouraging improv, getting them to cover Zappa for their parents... This is what a guitar hero looks like

Guitar World

Peter Frampton met one of his favorite new guitar players at George Lucas’s birthday party: “It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg looking back at us”

They both played guitar solos in front of Han Solo. Then, they joined forces on Frampton’s new album

Guitar World

Angine de Poitrine on why they’re one of 2026’s biggest success stories: “It would be presumptuous to think that it’s only about the music”

Guitarist Khn shares his theories in an exclusive interview with Guitar World

Guitar World

“I was all set to say goodbye, and Bruce asked me to come outside. There and then he asked me if I wanted to join”: Nils Lofgren on how the Bruce Springsteen gig saved his life at his lowest point

Lofgren was broke, living back home in D.C. with his folks, when a call to jam turned his life around

1 2 3 4 5

People

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

Organisations

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.