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DARK SECRETS: 63 | Vintage Vibes

“I step back and I’m like, ‘Don’t think about it. Maybe you nailed it, maybe you didn’t’”: John Mayer names his favorite solo with Dead & Company – and plays it live on air

Mayer was asked the question during his Life with John Mayer SiriusXM show, and he just so happened to have a Silver Sky in hand to answer it

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

“I got bored with Miles Davis. He was like, ‘Robben, play that just like the record.’ And I didn’t join Miles Davis to do that”: Robben Ford explains his dalliance with Davis, Joni Mitchell’s fuzz tips – and how Jeff Beck got him back on the Strat

Ford on two moments when Joni Mitchell was right and he was wrong, why his late 80s stint with Davis didn't work out and his go-to Dumble alternative

Guitar World

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“He said, ‘I canceled a gig to come watch you play, could I steal some licks from you?’ That’s when we got to know each other”: Buddy Guy recalls the first time he met Jimi Hendrix

The blues veteran reflects on having Hendrix in his audience, way back in the late ’60s

Guitar World

“Getting a Germanium Boy into Brian May’s hands pronto is a top priority”: Dirty Boy’s pedals are loved by the likes of John Frusciante and Neal Schon – is the Queen guitarist next?

The future’s bright for the boutique guitar and pedal brand. Its CEO tells us its story so far and why he believes he has just what Brian May needs for his tone

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

“I’d met Elvis Presley’s guitar player, who told me James Burton used banjo strings...” How Ritchie Blackmore came across an obscure string mod that introduced him to a whole new sound – and why it didn’t work for him

Burton proved it was possible to use banjo strings on guitar, but Blackmore’s early adventures with the hack got mixed results

Guitar World

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“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

“A tighter, louder and gutsier tone from an already stellar-sounding amp”: Bad Cat Mod Shop Black Cat 30 review

Remixed and refreshed by the late, great amp-guru Mark Sampson, thisBlack Cat has two more tubes, 10 more watts and a whole new voice

Guitar World

“He was completely ignored by the guitar press of that time period”: Vernon Reid on the guitarist he believes is massively underrated – even though he kept “the Hendrix voice” alive

In a chat with Guitar World last year, Reid even insisted that this guitarist's “continued non-acknowledgment as a near direct tonal descendant of Jimi Hendrix continues to this day”

Guitar World

“They’ve raised the bar, stretched the boundaries and won the ears and hearts of the young generation”: Tommy Emmanuel names the emerging players who are flying the flag for a new era of Americana and bluegrass

Asked for his guitarist of the year, the Aussie maestro replied with the names of four players who are lifting us all out of our "comfort zones"

Guitar World

Flea has announced his debut solo album – but he’s not the only bassist playing on it

After decades of anticipation, Flea’s debut single pulls no punches, with two bassists linking seamlessly on the song’s darting bassline

Guitar World

“There was a certain amount of desperation in Frank returning my call and saying, ‘I don't believe you, but get over here and prove it'”: How Mike Keneally landed the Frank Zappa gig – after cold-calling his guitar hero

Keneally said he had a “Zappa jukebox” in his brain. The man himself wanted to test it out

Guitar World

“Every time I watch videos of her playing guitar I melt on the floor”: Danielle Haim reveals her biggest guitar influences – and who she believes is one “of the most genius guitar players” of all time

The multi-instrumentalist sister trio have just been nominated in the Best Rock Album category at the upcoming Grammys for their latest album, I Quit

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“This amp has taken me about 10 years to nail down”: A long-lost Beach Boys Dumble that has spent the past 35 years in Hawaii has surfaced – and Jason Momoa is using it on his new album

This early 1980s holy grail took a decade to hunt down – and there's another one out there in the wild

Guitar World

“He was going to record it, so they put it on hold so nobody else could. But he didn’t actually record it”: Sheryl Crow says Don Henley told her to stop giving her songs away after she wrote a song for Eric Clapton that never got released

Will Slowhand ever release this song? It has been sitting "on hold" for him since the ’90s

Guitar World

“The SEs were going to go away. We were having trouble with sales”: Paul Reed Smith on the near-fateful end of the PRS SE Series – and what saved it from extinction

Smith reflects on the time the plug was almost pulled on the affordable branch of PRS guitars

Guitar World

“When I heard his stuff I was like, ‘This guy’s got the pipes.’ I watched his live stuff and I thought, ‘He’s got it, man!’” Joe Perry on Aerosmith’s surprise Yungblud collab and paying tribute to late Bad Company legend Mick Ralphs

Fresh from his latest solo band tour, the guitar legend insists there’s plenty more juice in the tank and hints at what might be ahead, while breaking down his recent rig choices

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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

“I never heard from John. He sold the guitar once he got out of rehab. And that was that – I never saw it again”: The incredible story of the Les Paul that Dave Navarro bought for his Guns N’ Roses audition – and ended up giving to John Frusciante

We ask Navarro about the Gibson that featured on the cover of GW's March ’96 issue, and it opens up a whole lot of memories for the former Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist

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

Guitar World

Guns N’ Roses share 2 new singles ahead of 2026 world tour – could the long-awaited studio album be next?

Atlas and Nothin’ mark the band’s first new material since 2023

Guitar World

“My inspiration for this tune was Flight of the Bumblebee, but through a funky lens, as if Tower of Power had written and recorded the melody”: Cory Wong on how to arrange guitar and keyboards

The funkmeister puts Direct Flyte under the microscope to deliver a masterclass in arrangement. It's funk, sure, but there's some operatic influence in there, too, because that's just how Wong rolls

Guitar World

The ultimate strap for heavy guitars? D’Addario’s new Comfort strap could be the solution to your back problems – and could have you playing for longer

Offering superior weight distribution and a design that molds “seamlessly to the player's body”, could this be the strap your back has been calling for?

Guitar World

“I took it into rehearsals and Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew shares unseen photos of “the first relic’d guitar” – which he created with Seymour Duncan

The pair’s process was a little more primitive than modern methods

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