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.

The Latest Breaking News from Chet Atkins

“We had four guitarists, which was unheard of at that point”: Johnny Hickman on his pre-Cracker band, the Unforgiven, revisiting the Cracker catalog, and big, bone-headed riffs

Re-recording their catalog for the epic Alternative History, Cracker are taking control of their own story, and it's one that begins with a riff and their own Mick and Keef creative chemistry

Guitar World

“Being a guitar player is a way of life. Everything comes down to commitment": Tommy Emmanuel explains the difference between being a guitarist and a guitar player

The Australian fingerpicking legends reflects on a life of guitar and what made Chet Atkins so great

Guitar World

“If we had tried to plan it, it would’ve never happened. The thing happened just by magic”: From Beatlemania to All Things Must Pass and beyond – the definitive guitar history of George Harrison's greatest recorded works

Guitar World's Beatlemaniacs assemble for the deepest of deep dives into the recorded output of a pop-cultural icon and genius player to find that there was no one quite like George Harrison

Guitar World

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

“Ray Manzarek hated the sound of distorted guitar chords. He didn’t think they belonged in music”: X’s Under the Big Black Sun is a stone-cold L.A. punk classic, produced by a legendary figure who “didn’t really like punk rock” – here's how it was made

In X guitarist Billy Zoom's mind, the band could have been Eddie Cochran meets the Ramones, but they ended up being much more. A renaissance man with a love of Gretsch, Zoom takes us back to revisit the band's seminal 1982 album

Guitar World

“We often overlook this humble technique, yet it’s such an important tool for expressive rhythm and lead playing”: Palm muting is an essential guitar technique – but there’s a lot more to it than just chugging. Are you using it to its full potential?

First used by ’50s legends Chet Atkins and Les Paul, it is rock, metal and punk that have made palm muting so popular today

Guitar World

"I remember saying to Eric, 'I'm going to play him off the stage one day'. But what Eric did was even more peculiar, he said, 'Well, I'm going to pretend that I am Jimi Hendrix!'": Pete Townshend looks back in this classic 1990 guitar interview

Best of 2024: "The thing that really stunned Eric and me was the way he took what we did and made it better"

MusicRadar

“I always liked bluegrass a lot because the tempo is a lot closer to a NOFX beat”: Meet the Bad Ups, the Philadelphia punks inspired by country-and-western, reggae and Chet Atkins

The Philly punks kick down the walls of genre orthodoxy on their debut album Life of Sin, complementing their powerchord assault with new-wave vibes, acoustic guitar, and licks Chet Atkins taught 'em

Guitar World

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

“I don’t practice, because I don’t think that practicing in itself is necessary”: Yes icon Steve Howe on why he rarely runs scales, thrashing acoustics –and why you won’t catch him playing unfamiliar guitars

The prog legend checks in to talk all things guitar, from drawing inspiration from his parents' record collection and cutting his teeth on a cheap arch-top to finding his sound on the ES-175 and six-string explorations on Guitarscape

Guitar World

"We weren’t fiddling around and wondering what to do, we were going to nail this sucker": Steve Howe names the best record he's ever made

Yes guitarist Steve Howe picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

Louder

“My playing has always sucked, but it sells, because I keep it simple, I guess. I’m not a guitar player, I never took the time”: Soul icon Steve Cropper on writing Green Onions, stressing out Brian May – and the secret of Billy Gibbons’ guitar style

Cropper says he isn't it a great guitar player but if you co-wrote Green Onions and (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, you don't need technical wizardry. He walks us through a career marked by hits, grooves and soul

Guitar World

“I was thrashing that guitar to pieces, and I don’t play like that anymore”: Prog rock legend Steve Howe of Yes reveals what he’s learned in 60 years of playing

His first guitar, his favourite Yes song, and much more…

MusicRadar

“I played poker with Freddie King during one of the tours he did with Eric Clapton. I lost half my tour money!” Session legend George Terry on eating Whoppers with Diana Ross and high times as Eric Clapton’s go-to ’70s six-string lieutenant

George Terry looks back on a decade of hits with the Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand, ABBA, and Diana Ross, and his adventures and misadventures with Slowhand

Guitar World

“I’m always true to the melody but I try to do something unique with it. That makes it sound like me, even if it’s a Paul McCartney or John Lennon song”: Tommy Emmanuel on the art of arrangement, performance and why there’s no shortcut to virtuosity

Tommy Emmanuel does things with the acoustic guitar that defy belief. He does things with pop-culture's canon that blow our mind. Here he walks through his approach, sharing wisdom as he goes

Guitar World

Cotten picking, ‘picking and flicking’, open tunings, Travis picking and banjo techniques on guitar – learning Americana guitar styles opens up a whole new world for your acoustic playing

From Maybelle Carter’s famous ‘pick and flick’ approach to Pete Seeger’s banjo-style techniques – it’s all here in a lesson that will make you a more rounded player

Guitar World

Get all your
news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“When I heard the Rolling Stones, they sounded like a bad high school band to me. I didn't get it”: Tommy Emmanuel explains how a love of Chet Atkins meant he initially struggled to understand The Rolling Stones and Beatles hype

Emmanuel now “loves” both bands, but back in the day it took him “a long time to appreciate them”

MusicRadar

Duane Eddy: “Our echo chamber was actually a 2,000-gallon water tank. We went down to the Salt River, visited a junkyard there... and we yelled into tanks”

Classic Interview: The rock 'n' roll icon on tone, hit-making and Hazelwood

Guitar World

“One of the most successful instrumentalists in rock history”: Duane Eddy, rock guitar pioneer, dies at 86

Hugely influential to the likes of George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty, the Gretsch-wielding legend was known for his unmistakable, twanging tone and smash instrumental hits like Rebel Rouser

Guitar World

“When I recorded with Jason Becker, he was still able to speak… he articulated exactly what he wanted, down to every pinch harmonic, vibrato and out-of-tune note”: Shrapnel veteran Michael Lee Firkins reflects on the final days of shred

The former Shrapnel star discusses bringing bluesgrass to shred, working with the great Jason Becker and his pivotal role in establishing the Yamaha Pacifica

Get all your
news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One news app.

Guitar World

“I was tired of not being able to hear my guitar when I played. I got a Gretsch Country Gentleman, and that changed the game for me”: Vincent Neil Emerson’s star is rising fast – whether he’s playing a Chet Atkins electric or rare George Harrison acoustic

The Texas storyteller tells his story so far – from Neil Young tunings to Shooter Jennings collaborations and how he channels raw emotion through his guitar leads

MusicRadar

"The thing that really stunned Eric and me was the way he took what we did and made it better"

Louder

“Those Dire Straits songs walked away from me long ago. They belong to you now”: the life and times of Mark Knopfler, rock’s reluctant superstar

Ex-Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler on motorbike crashes, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and his complicated relationship with his old band

Guitar World

“I felt like I’d stumbled upon this magical sound radiating off people’s turntables… my Strat and Gretsch together had this sound of one guitar, even when it was two”: As Randy Bachman prepares to part with his guitar collection, he’s still burning bright

The 80-year-old Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive pioneer is hitting the road with extra energy after hearing remastered live recordings: “We were on fire! We went to Japan and played as good as Led Zeppelin”

Guitar World

How the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins became a rock ’n’ roll icon, played by Pete Townshend, Randy Bachman and more – before enjoying a triumphant second act in the hands of Brian Setzer

There are few cooler hollowbody electrics than the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins/Nashville, few more versatile. It has done country, rock 'n' roll, rockabilly and rock. This is its story

Guitar World

The world’s most influential guitar gear designers: meet the pioneers behind the innovations that changed the electric guitar forever

It’s not just star guitarists who have changed the way we play – these are the innovators whose inventions forever altered the course of the guitar itself

Guitar World

The history of Gretsch electric guitars: how guitarist, demonstrator and designer Jimmie Webster’s innovations of the ’50s and ’60s shape That Great Gretsch Sound to this day

Jazz Age razzmatazz, pickup experiments and Jimmie Webster’s wonders – we celebrate 140 years of That Great Gretsch Sound with a look at its key electric milestones

1 2

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.