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EXPLAINED: Allan holdsworth - The Real Truth

“Evidently not content with redefining what was technically possible on the guitar, he also managed to rewrite pretty much the whole of music theory”: How Allan Holdsworth blew Eddie Van Halen’s mind and inspired the next generation of virtuosos

We unpack the brilliance of jazz-fusion trailblazer Allan Holdsworth, with some help from Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Paul Gilbert and Eddie Van Halen

MusicRadar

“This wasn’t party rock any more. It was fusion and progressive music, and I absolutely loved it”: Paul Gilbert on the genius of Allan Holdsworth, and the one song that proves it

The former Mr Big guitarist and solo artist discovered his prog hero via Eddie Van Halen – and even tried to play like him for a while

Louder

“I refused to believe the negative things he said because I couldn’t lose hope. But everything he said came to pass”: Terry Bozzio asked a question when he joined Frank Zappa. He asked the same question when he left

Drummer, composer and painter recalls his experiences with Captain Beefheart, UK and others, names the best band he’s ever been in and reveals how long it takes to set up his Big Kit

Louder

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“They’re the absolute pioneers – like a mix of thrash metal and Allan Holdsworth”: Why Wolfgang Van Halen is in awe of a “super heavy” cult band

"They were really creating something new"

MusicRadar

“My producer Mickie Most said, ‘We can’t let a wild boy like Hendrix in there. We have to control the song, Don’”: ’60s icon Donovan tells the story of the “heavy metal folk” song that connects him to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles

But was Hurdy Gurdy Man really the template for Stairway To Heaven?

MusicRadar

“Ibanez has broken the rules of conventional guitar design. Pick it up and break the rules of guitar playing”: Ibanez Q54W review

It's like all the cool kids are saying, if you want to get ahead, get a headless guitar

Guitar World

“He had his own vocabulary. He had his own way of constructing chords. His own understanding of how they go on the neck”: Steve Vai on why Allan Holdsworth – the fusion virtuoso who wrote his own rules – was the GOAT

Most players Vai can work out where they were coming from. Holdsworth, he admits, was something different entirely

MusicRadar

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“It’s a team of terrifying quality – but the result is no face-melting noodle-fest. Everything stems from musical ideas”: Gavin Harrison and Nick Johnston’s Early Mercy

King Crimson and Porcupine Tree drummer and new Mastodon guitarist deliver strange, beautiful music with help from Allan Holdsworth bassist Evan Marien

Louder

“I love using toy guitars that you have to wrestle with. It adds to the performance – you’re pulling from the instrument”: Dean DeLeo on why his favorite STP songs are the ones he didn’t write, and barging into Allan Holdsworth’s dressing room

The Stone Temple Pilots guitar icon explains how he stumbles upon songs, why nothing’s quite like a Telecaster, and how his latest spellbinding collaboration, One More Satellite, came to be

Guitar World

“I said, ‘Wow, Jeff Beck has really taken it to the next level.’ But then I realised, ‘Wait a minute - this isn’t Jeff Beck!’”: Steve Stevens reveals his two all-time favourite guitar solos

Billy Idol's sidekick pays tribute to Page and Holdsworth

MusicRadar

“It's the most significant development in the last 50 years. Everything else has just been a little tweak on something Leo Fender or Les Paul did”: Once Allan Holdsworth picked up a headless Steinberger, there was no turning back

Though he'd also later work with Carvin, Holdsworth remained a headless guitar devotee for the rest of his life, telling Guitar World in an interview just days before his death, “Once you play a headless guitar, you’ll never want to play a regular guitar again”

Guitar World

Joni Mitchell described it as ‘fly fishing’ and Jeff Beck was a master of the craft – learn how to use volume swells like guitar legends Eddie Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth and Larry Carlton

Volume down, pick, volume up... violining offers loads of potential as this lesson proves

Guitar World

“I like that their appearance intrigues non-guitar players and bothers old-fashioned people”: Despite early love from Eddie Van Halen and Allan Holdsworth, headless guitars became a punchline – yet in 2025, they’re more popular than ever. We found out why

With wider options across a variety of price points and more signature artists than ever, has the headless axe’s time finally come?

Guitar World

“The dynamic twists and thoughtful depths of the mix suggest these pieces aren’t so much produced as dramatised”: Soft Machine’s Softs vinyl remaster

John Etheridge’s arrival adds a harder, defined edge to the band’s 1976 album

Louder

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Guitar World

He’s the fearless, Strat-wielding counterpart to icons like Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Allan Holdsworth – and Wayne Krantz forged a raw, rhythmic approach to fusion guitar

A lesson inspired by the jazz great that will help the advanced players out there take their improv chops to the next level

Guitar World

His devastating riffs almost single-handedly invented djent, and his Allan Holdsworth-inspired solos blew an entire generation of guitarists’ minds: how Meshuggah’s Fredrick Thordendal changed the face of metal

One of the most influential guitar players of his generation, Thordendal’s low-end, rhythmically complex assaults have changed the shape and sound of metal

Guitar World

His playing blew the minds of Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen, while his improvisation was up there with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker – here’s how Allan Holdsworth reinvented the way we approach the electric guitar

This in-depth masterclass in the fusion icon’s virtuoso style is for moderate to advanced players ready to level up their legato chops, outside playing and minor chord vocabulary

Guitar World

“I would call our approach organized chaos, but it drove Allan Holdsworth up the wall”: John Wetton has been the bass force behind a peak-period King Crimson lineup and two prog rock supergroups

A veteran of one of King Crimson’s classic lineups, John Wetton’s amazing career took him through a host of British prog bands

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Louder

“Our producer played the intro to Nevermore and I was just blown away”: How U.K. became Witherfall guitarist Jake Dreyer’s prog heroes

Astonished by the world of Allan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford in particular, he’s happy to explain how you’ll hear the supergroup in his own band’s material

Guitar World

“Allan recorded a bunch of takes. He apologized, saying they all sucked… Of course, every note he played was miraculous”: Grammy-nominated virtuoso Alex Masi on why he turned down Stevie Ray Vaughan, his Allan Holdsworth collab and time with Shawn Lane

The Italian virtuoso explains why he hates the term ‘shred’, what’s wrong with social media guitar heroes and looks back on his missed opportunities with Shawn Lane

Guitar World

“Rory Gallagher’s a saint in my house. There’s even a saintly painting of him above where I hang my guitar”: Meet Louise Patricia Crane, the solo-loving songwriter, seeking new prog sounds with King Crimson’s Jakko Jakszyk

Netherworld is the sound of Crane and producer Jakszyk testing the boundaries of where guitar can go, in the company of special guests Tony Levin, Gary Husband and Ian Anderson

Louder

“I was absolutely horrified when I saw the box set. I went ballistic! Explain to your readers I didn’t know about that”: Allan Holdsworth’s life in music

The influential guitarist died days after the release of 12-disc collection The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever! – but ahead of the launch he had a lot to say about that and many other things

Guitar World

Allan Holdsworth blew the minds of Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and a generation of guitar heroes – and his extraordinary fretboard hacks are still inspiring players today

Take your playing to another realm with this lesson in Holdsworth’s legato, string skipping and that unique ability of his to find new patterns in scales

Guitar World

“Not a stitch. I can’t pull anything off!” Joe Bonamassa names the one technique he cannot nail – and reveals what prompted him to pivot from Strats to Les Pauls

It's a technique that Allan Holdsworth and Eric Johnson are masters at, but the revered blues guitarist has had to pursue a different approach to counter his shredding kryptonite

MusicRadar

"I have tremendous problems with some of my own tunes, unless they’re particularly simple": Remembering the musical mind, self-deprecation and wisdom of Allan Holdsworth

We go back to 1987 with one of guitar's true originals: "The basic major7 chord – the first one you probably learn on the guitar – is absolutely offensive to me"

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