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UNCOVERED: Jared james nichols - The Untold Story

“Those old players had nothing to hide behind. Just their hands, their feel and the truth coming through the speakers”: 5 modern blues guitar heroes on the impossible task of imitating the blues greats

Blues and rock is still being shaped by the British blues boom of the ’60s – and the O.G. bluesmen who influenced them. But how can today’s players nail their tone and sound? Marcus King, Samantha Fish, Zach Persons, Philip Sayce and Jared James Nichols have their say

Guitar World

“The door cracks open and I hear, ‘Who the hell are you? Play that again!‘” Steven Tyler gatecrashed Jared James Nichols’ jam and invited him to hang out with Aerosmith – and he kept coming back

Nichols ended up rubbing shoulders with Aerosmith and was even shown some early studio mixes

Guitar World

“Every modern guitarist from Joe Bonamassa to Jared James Nichols gets the same haters who say, ‘Everything you play is pentatonic’”: Meet Eric Steckel, the high-gain firebrand painting a new shade of blues guitar

The Knaggs signature artist has grown an international profile by importing heavy distortion into the blues and bending it to his will

Guitar World

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“Flamenco-inspired triplets, big trap beats, and – wait – is that a wah solo?” January 2026 Guitar World Editors’ Picks

Featuring an onslaught of leviathan power chords from Sunn O))), a bruiser of a blues rock romp from Jared James Nichols, a beautiful, heartfelt piece of desert blues from Imarhan, a genre-obliterating piece of twisty guitar genius from Tim Henson, and a whole lot more

Guitar World

“I didn’t need all the extra crap. Just give me a single-P-90 guitar and a Tube Screamer and I’m ready to play the Royal Albert Hall”: Jared James Nichols on why he took the Klon off his pedalboard and what players get wrong about drive pedals

Not everyone is expanding their pedalboards. Nichols explains why he prefers to keep it simple – and to leave the super-rare high-value pedalboard gold at home

MusicRadar

“There is something really special that can happen when three musicians are playing off of each other and interacting in real time”: Jared James Nichols on why playing in a trio opens up your soloing approaches

Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Mountain, Rush... Jared James Nichols argues that three is the magic number, allowing guitar players to stretch out and the band to feed off each other

Guitar World

“A Tube Screamer is a Tube Screamer. It’s one of the great cons of the guitar industry. They got these dirt boxes right the first time!” Why Jared James Nichols stopped obsessing over gear – and honed in on his playing instead

Freedom, says Nichols, is the knowledge you can pick up anyone's guitar and sound like you, and now the Nashville-based Les Paul wrangler is finding that freedom in songwriting

Guitar World

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“Moments like this don’t happen in real life”: Jared James Nichols spotted a pedal builder in the audience at one of his gigs – then handed him his guitar mid-solo

The impromptu guest spot was full of high notes

Guitar World

“I have a 1968 Plexi and Leslie West’s old Sunn amp, which Joe Bonamassa gave me”: Jared James Nichols owns a few vintage amp gems – but here’s why he still prefers Blackstars

Nichols and Blackstar have collaborated on a handful of signature amps over the years

Guitar World

“Taking Klons on the road isn’t fun. It is an easy nick”: Jared James Nichols was gifted a Klon Centaur by Joe Bonamassa – here’s how he kept it safe on the road

Nichols went from nearly having his borrowed Klon stolen to being given one of his own by the blues guitar icon

Guitar World

“What Dire Straits would sound like if Mark Knopfler grew up in the deserts of Algeria rather than the streets of Newcastle”: October 2025 Guitar World Editors' Picks

Liven up your Halloween with six-string (and five-string) sorcery from Alter Bridge, Mei Semones, Whitney, Karma Sheen, Jacob Collier, Unprocessed, and many more

Guitar World

Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: October 13, 2025

Eight songs you need to hear right now, from Alter Bridge, Cheap Trick, Danko Jones and more

Louder

“One of my biggest musical influences is the king of blues power. He also played in an unorthodox tuning, which is still a mystery”: Jared James Nichols on how Albert King's electric fingerpicking changed the game for blues guitar

Albert King played upside down, in a weird tuning, and influenced SRV and Hendrix alike, and he did it without a pick. So it's no surprise Nichols is a huge fan – he breaks down King's magic

Guitar World

“Dime is in there. I have a big Eddie Van Halen influence. The same goes for Eric Clapton. It all channels back to the blues”: Mark Morton explains why he’s jamming with Grace Bowers and Jason Isbell on his solo album – and those Gibson signature rumors

His second solo album, Without The Pain, features Troy Sanders, Jason Isbell, Jared James Nichols, Grace Bowers and a stack of guitars from his frighteningly valuable collection

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“There are so many sounds tobe discovered when you get away from using a pick”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to add “snap, crackle and pop” to your playing with banjo rolls and string snaps

Here's a blues power-up for your fingerstyle technique, as the big man combines chicken pickin' with snappy pops on the strings

Louder

The best new rock songs you need to hear right now

Featuring Joe Bonamassa, Mark Morton & Charlie Starr, The Darkness and five other tattooed beat messiahs

Guitar World

“We’re all looking for new inspiration. Some of us have been playing humbuckers for a long, long time”: Are we witnessing a P-90 renaissance? Warren Haynes has his say

Need some fresh sounds? The Allman Bros guitarist says P-90s are "instantly the tonal change I’m looking for"

Guitar World

“This is a technique that has been used to great effect by some of my biggest blues heroes”: By thumb-picking bass notes while playing a melody, you can be your own rhythm section – Jared James Nichols shows you how

The pickless blues-rock powerhouse demonstrates some picking hand independence strategies that gets it working up a rhythm that works a treat for the solo musician

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Guitar World

“For me, it’s not enough to play an idea once and then move on. I’d rather develop my initial phrase and then morph it into 10 different, thematically connected ones”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to use call-and-response blues phrasing

This Blues Power-up for your playing will help your solos speak to the audience

Guitar World

“I’m always envisioning the phrases I play as being like vocal parts”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to make your solos “sing”

The blues power advocate says thinking like a vocalist can help your solos connect with your audience – he shows you how it’s done

Guitar World

“He had one of the greatest finger vibratos of all time”: Jared James Nichols on the guitar genius of Free’s Paul Kossoff

Kossoff is one of Jared James Nichols’ six-string heroes: he unpacks the Free guitarist’s signature vibrato and phrasing

Guitar World

“He was able to make each note sound so big. When I formed my first trio the first place my mind would go was the sound of Leslie West’s guitar”: Jared James Nichols explains why Mountain man Leslie West was the “king of heavy”

In this video lesson, Nichols unpacks some of West's signature techniques and demonstrates how you, too, can scale the summit of tone and feel...

Guitar World

“Everything I do in life is left-handed, except for guitar playing… Using a plectrum never felt comfortable in my right hand”: Jared James Nichols on how he came up with his unique fingerstyle approach – and why it can make your playing more expressive

In his debut Guitar World column, the master wrangler of the Les Paul shows us why you don't need a pick to wrestle a tune out of your guitar

MusicRadar

“This thing’s f***ing sick! This one’s good!”: Watch Jared James Nichols unleash Blues Power magic on Lester Williams’ “Texas Troubador” 1954 Stratocaster, one of the most vibe-y Strats you will see

Nichols might be a Les Paul guy but as a long-time SRV fan he still knows how to light up a Stratocaster... And besides, he also took the opportunity to put a '57 LP Custom through its paces

Guitar World

“When I picked up a guitar, I held it righty, but the pick never felt right in my hands, so I started to make up my own technique”: Jared James Nichols reveals how he developed his unique fingerstyle technique – and the perks of going pick-less

Nichols also demonstrates how to achieve optimum attack and dynamics with his fingerstyle technique, which was inspired by Albert King, Derek Trucks and Mark Knopfler

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