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DARK SECRETS: 25 | Rare Historical Photos

“I told her, ‘This is Purple Haze’, and she said, ’No, it’s not. I saw Jimi Hendrix live, and Purple Haze didn’t sound anything like that!” When Richie Kotzen learned a Hendrix classic wrong, his mom called him out

The guitar virtuoso says he had to face down criticism at the very outset of his playing career – albeit from his own mother

Guitar World

“I’d go into this antique store every day to play it. One day the owner just gave it to me”: How The Linda Lindas’ Bela Salazer got her first electric guitar for free

Salazar and co-guitarist Lucia de la Garza's first guitars were instrumental in helping them write their own, and The Linda Lindas', early songs

Guitar World

“I used to get into fights with kids at school who thought Ace wasn’t as good as Jimmy Page. I’d fight for his honor”: Dimebag Darrell and Snake Sabo on their love of Ace Frehley, and how the Kiss legend shaped their playing

Both guitarists were recruited by Guitar World in 1993 for a roundtable of sorts with Frehley – during which Dimebag and Sabo even went to the trouble of donning “Spaceman” makeup themselves

Guitar World

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“In the weeks leading up to the show, Deryck and I talked about our mutual love for the Sex Pistols. That’s when we planned the special moment”: Sum 41's Deryck Whibley plays Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul at the band's last-ever European show

The storied guitar, which sold for $390,000 at auction earlier this year, was recently played by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and Yungblud

Guitar World

“Before, if you had a bad gig, or were drunk and puked on the stage, maybe somebody would tell the story, but there was no video proof. Now, everything is recorded”: Matteo Mancuso on why nobody in the contemporary guitar scene can afford a bad gig

Mancuso is one of this year's breakout stars – but with a brighter spotlight comes the added online (and offline) pressure to be consistent without fail

Guitar World

Trump Guitars hit with cease and desist from Gibson over use of Les Paul body shape

Breaking: The patriotic line was launched as “the only guitar officially endorsed by President Donald J. Trump”, but Gibson says it infringes on its trademarks

Guitar World

“I played my first Flying V ironically as a joke… It was considered a very ‘metal’ guitar, and I could not shred”: L7’s Donita Sparks on why she opted to play a Flying V – despite it being a “shredder guitar”

The Flying V has accompanied Sparks throughout her journey with L7 – including some of the band's most career-defining moments, such as their 1994 Glastonbury appearance and their notorious 1992 Reading set

Guitar World

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“What I do with the trem arm is not an exact science. It’s more like an absurdist alchemy”: Imperial Triumphant guitarist Zachary Ezrin showcases his wild whammy technique on Eye of Mars – and a Gibson with the Midas touch

The experimental band’s forthcoming album, Goldstar, puts Ezrin’s oddball blend of influences and techniques center stage

Guitar World

“He came out to the studio, sick, did the solo and killed it after a couple of passes. I tried to pay him some money, but he wouldn’t accept it”: Jim Suhler on the time Joe Bonamassa played on one of his tracks – and delivered a searing solo while sick

Suhler met Bonamassa back in 2001, when the then-rising star was supporting George Thorogood, and has stayed in touch with him ever since

Guitar World

“The crowd got ugly – they were just being assholes, throwing mud at us the whole set, hitting us hard on our bodies and on our guitars”: Donita Sparks tells the story of L7’s infamous set at 1992’s Reading Festival

Sparks recalls dealing with lost equipment and a series of technical issues on stage – alongside a crowd that was throwing mud at the band – which ultimately led to her then-controversial response

Guitar World

“When Chicago hit the scene, it stuck out like nothing else”: Steve Vai lays down a smoking alternative solo for South California Purples in this rare fret-melting guest spot at Chicago’s Live at 55 show

Vai was joined by the likes of Judith Hill and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram to help mark 55 years Chicago Transit Authority

Guitar World

“It’s been road-tested, kicked around, X-rayed… We’ve made a guitar that's adaptable to all situations”: Fender and Chris Shiflett cut no corners in creating the new signature ‘Cleaver’ Telecaster – a long-awaited replica of his Masterbuilt model

The P-90-loaded workhorse was first teased earlier this year, and has been rigorously road-tested over a number of months in order to meet the Foo Fighters guitar maestro’s exacting standards

Guitar World

“John, Paul, George, Ringo, the first time they ever performed together in the Cavern Club, this amp was what they used”: Hear the amp said to be John Lennon’s first Vox put through its paces – with Noel Gallagher’s Les Paul

The storied 1962 Vox AC15 is expected to fetch between $127,132 and $254,265 at tomorrow's auction

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

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Guitar World

“Bruno would send me records, and I would send him records. Eventually, he asked, ‘Would you want to play on a song?’”: How Ella Feingold got working with Bruno Mars – and how it differed from her Prince audition

Feingold had already worked with Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Erykah Badu and Queen Latifah when she got the call from Bruno Mars

Guitar World

“We’d be on the phone and he goes, ‘It’s too metal. I gotta get it on pop radio! Use the small amp, not so much distortion’”: Steve Lukather on how Quincy Jones saved Michael Jackson’s Beat It from becoming a metal track

Jackson wanted a rock track for Thriller – and Lukather says Jones had to step in to stop the song from entering fully fledged metal territory

Guitar World

“This is why we want to show up at NAMM”: Marshall is returning to NAMM for the first time in 5 years – and has teased some blockbuster launches

After previously hinting that digital amps, modeling software and other advancements were in the works, Marshall is now set to embark on an all-new chapter when NAMM 2025 kicks off

Guitar World

“A lot of people are feeling the same way. They're like, ‘I’m covered with Superstrats and Strats, but I don't have an offset…’”: Misha Mansoor on the emergence of offsets in metal music – and why he should have seen it coming

The Periphery guitarist recently worked with Jackson to produce one of 2024's most talked-about custom builds – but he's not the first player to have dragged the offset into heavy territory over the past few years

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Guitar World

“I might have done better in the Bluesbreakers than in the Yardbirds, but I certainly wouldn't have had the same kind of free rein to experiment”: Jeff Beck on his relationship with Eric Clapton, jamming with Hendrix, and turning down John Mayall

In a 2010 chat with GW, the always creatively restless virtuoso discusses his love of John McLaughlin, what he sought out to do when venturing into the world of classical music, and the musical icon he wished he had had the chance to collaborate with

Guitar World

“Prince said, ‘Think more Elton John.’ I was like, ‘Is he clowning? Is he trolling me?’” Session ace Ella Feingold once auditioned to join Prince’s band – and was told her playing was “too funky”

Feingold has discussed her 2005 audition, during which her chops proved to be too funky – and not enough ‘Elton John’ – for Prince

Guitar World

“Joe had a semi-truck full of amps and swapped them out every two or three shows. He'd say, ‘What do you think?’ I'd be like, ‘It sounds just like you every time’”: Greg Suran on his time with Joe Walsh – and the Eagle’s passion for tonal tinkering

A veteran guitarist whose resumé also includes work with Sunny Day Real Estate, The B-52's, and Lionel Richie, Suran tells GW that he learned plenty from the Eagles legend, both tone-wise and solo-wise

Guitar World

“That’s true. We smoked Jimi Hendrix’s guitar... I thought it’d be fun to crumble a bit of the wood off and pop it inside a joint”: Steve Cradock once smoked the shavings of Hendrix’s Strat by rolling them in a page from the Bible

A regular studio session took a turn in the spirit of Purple Haze, when the Ocean Colour Scene guitarist ended up getting high on Hendrix's guitar

Guitar World

“I've not got a huge history with Gibson, but this one I bought to have a different tone”: From a forensic Black Strat replica to a Gibson that caught his ear and a ‘90s Zoom unit, here's everything David Gilmour used on his new solo album, Luck & Strange

Gilmour's tech, Phil Taylor, provides GW with an exhaustive list of the guitar gear used to record the prog icon's first solo album in nine years – and there are some surprising pieces of kit

MusicRadar

“Kurt was sitting in the bathtub with a Walkman on, listening to the song, and when the tape ended, he kissed me and said, 'Oh, finally, now I don't have to be the only songwriter in the band!'”: Dave Grohl's evolution as a songwriter

“I was in a band with one of the greatest songwriters of our generation, so I didn’t really want to rock the boat”

Guitar World

“When I worked with Tony Iommi, I had an epiphany... he sounded like him no matter what amp you’ve got him on”: Billy Corgan on how watching Iommi taught him the key to the playing style of Eddie Van Halen

As Corgan explains, the distinctive aspect he observed of the ’Sabbath great, also shaped his understanding of players like Eddie Van Halen and Uli Jon Roth

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