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The Latest Breaking News from Guitar World

“Any fan of Geordie Walker or Billy Duffy will be won over in seconds by this imperious, gothic riff”: May 2025 Guitar World Editors' Picks

It's been another incredible month for new guitar-driven music – our favorites include a 12-minute funk/soul/country blowout from U.S. Girls, twisty greatness from Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and Tony Iommi's collaboration with... Robbie Williams?

Guitar World

“Noel said, ‘What’s that tone?’ He started fiddling with the controls on the amp, and I thought, ‘Will I tell him to stuff his band now, or will I stick around?’”: Eric Bell recalls his very first rehearsal with Noel Redding – who hated his guitar sound

Bell’s departure from Thin Lizzy led him to Noel Redding – but tensions ran high during the pair’s early days together

Guitar World

“Everyone who met him will carry Chris’ enthusiasm and love for music of all kinds. It was impossible not to be affected by it”: Chris Bird, Guitar World Lessons Editor and former Total Guitar Editor, has died aged 48

Our friend and colleague first joined Total Guitar in 2007 and spent nearly two decades sharing his passion and knowledge for the craft with readers

Guitar World

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“The guitar player got caught in a snowstorm and couldn’t get down for the gig. They were looking for somebody and I said, ‘I know all that stuff’”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter went to a James Brown gig – and had to step in as his sideman at the last minute

Brown may be known as the the “Hardest-Working Man in Show Business”, but it seems like Skunk is also worthy of that moniker...

Guitar World

“The cops saved the show”: Busker nails a Brian May solo as officers take down a suspect behind him – and he doesn’t miss a note

Busking can be a distracting and thankless task – but Andryel Jung’s recent performance stood out for two reasons

Guitar World

Chris Bird, MusicRadar Lessons Editor and former Total Guitar Editor has died, aged 48

Gifted guitar tutor rose through the editorial ranks

MusicRadar

“I had turned everything to 10, as there was no 11 back then. The engineers asked me to turn it down because it was too distorted”: How the then 18-year-old Steppenwolf guitarist recorded the solo that came to define the band's career

Michael Monarch recalls his start with The Sparrows – which eventually morphed into Steppenwolf – and how their signature song, Born to Be Wild, came to be

Guitar World

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“I met my biological father as an adult through a DNA test. I was surprised to find that he’d been infatuated with the guitar his entire life as well”: From childhood abandonment to country stardom, here is the incredible story of Rockie Lynne

The late blooming country star discusses his custom guitar range, what musicians can learn from motorcycling, and how he wound up with a perfect copy of Peter Frampton’s rig

Guitar World

“They looked at me like they had seen a ghost. They were like, ‘We’ve got to make this for people’”: Brad Paisley’s new signature Telecaster is based on a vintage gem so rare Fender couldn’t believe he had one

The ‘Lost’ Telecaster features an obscure paisley finish that revives a long-forgotten treatment from the late ’60s

Guitar World

“I talk a lot about ‘the serious musician,’ and that's our opportunity to create the next generation of serious musicians”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto lays out one of the store's next biggest priorities for 2025 – and it isn’t selling gear

Dalporto has already discussed his desire to improve the quality of gear that Guitar Center stocks – but he's also got his eye on avenue for growth

Guitar World

“Playing the blues isn’t about scales… it’s pattern music. You need to learn the right patterns”: Sue Foley is a master at turning scales into solos – here are her 6 essential licks that all blues fans should know

Sue Foley's inaugural GW column kicks off with a bang! Blues you can use, people. This part one of a two-parter introduces essential walk-up licks to build your soloing vocabulary

Guitar World

“The dragon that came up was spitting real fire at me while I was doing the solo. I could feel the heat”: Yngwie Malmsteen filmed the music video for one of his most iconic tracks on the Conan The Barbarian set

“The director told me to throw my guitar. I think I took the dragon’s ear off,” Malmsteen remembers of the none-more-metal music video shoot

Guitar World

"The first thing I notice is a bit of surprise": A guitarist tries 9.5 gauge guitar strings for the first time with the new Ernie Ball Tim Henson signature set

Are these strings a sweet spot for players? Guitarist Pete Emery finds out with this long-term test

MusicRadar

“You’ve gotta be able to learn the songs by ear – especially with Cradle of Filth. The tabs online are terrible”: Cradle Of Filth’s Donny Burbage and Marek ‘Ashok’ Šmerda on their theatrical metal roles – and what modern players miss about Marshalls

The hands that rock the Cradle reveal the guitar tonesbehind their theatrical metal mayhem and find modern guitars are weak and false

Guitar World

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news in one place.

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Guitar World

“Geffen thought we were too young to write our own songs. Bob Dylan wrote a song, Bruce Springsteen had a song”: Ryan Hedgecock on Lone Justice's brief but fierce ’80s run – and how Tom Petty and Mike Campbell ended up penning a song on their debut

The promising young band were the subject of a flurry of publicity after they were signed to Geffen, but a behind-the-scenes mismatch in vision led to the outfit's premature demise

Guitar World

“Our guitars were so bad, we couldn’t make them work for us. Glenn came over to my apartment with six guitars, three under each arm, and threw them onto the futon”: Sonic Youth are now alternate tunings icons – but the band opted for them out of necessity

The noise-rock icon is famous for his love of weird tunings, but that fixation only happened with a little help from one of the NY art-rock scene’s biggest innovators

Guitar World

"We wrote a song based on a riff I had. The idea was to be Mahavishnu Orchestra with vocals": After Deep Purple decided not to hire him after Ritchie Blackmore's departure, Clem Clempson almost formed a wild supergroup with Glenn Hughes and David Bowie

The Colosseum and Humble Pie guitarist was in with a shot at joining the band –but says Tommy Bolin got the gig for one specific reason

Guitar World

“He was opening for Bobby Darin and the audience were going, ‘We want Duane! We want Duane!’ Poor Bobby was backstage, almost in tears. From there on, Duane finished the show”: Albert Lee, Joe Bonamassa and Vince Gill on the life and legacy of Duane Eddy

He was the most successful instrumentalist of the rock age. We went along to last month’s all-star Nashville tribute show to learn first-hand about the Titan of Twang – from those who were inspired by him and those who were there

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Guitar World

“Al Di Meola was at one of the John Petrucci camps and he said, ‘Learn as much theory as you possibly can and then forget it!’” Progressive virtuoso Jason Richardson gives his take on the timeless ‘music theory versus ear training’ debate

Is music theory necessary to write guitar solos that stand the test of time? All That Remains' lead guitarist weighs in...

Guitar World

“Alice really wanted a signature riff. When I played it for him, he just smiled and patted me on the back”: The iconic Alice Cooper Poison riff started out as John McCurry’s warm-up routine – and it lives a double life

McCurry’s legendary guitar hook had been used for another song two years earlier – but Alice Cooper was desperate for his Sweet Child O’ Mine moment

Guitar World

July 2025 Guitar World lesson videos and more

The one where Joe Bonamassa demonstrates exactly what makes Eric Johnson so unique and Jared James Nichols shows you how to make your cats howl!

Guitar World

“Fender has standards. I don’t”: Brad Paisley will personally build 19 of his new signature Lost Telecasters – and he plans to get experimental

The guitarist is taking matters into his own hands for the extremely limited batch of Paisley-made Teles

Guitar World

“Epiphone has a few things they want to release...”: Alex Lifeson's iconic ‘Whitey’ Gibson ES-355 featured on almost every Rush album – and an affordable signature version could be in the works

Alex Lifeson's iconic “Whitey” ES-355 featured on almost every Rush album – and an affordable signature version could be in the works

Guitar World

“I got a call: ‘Can you be on a plane tomorrow to go to New Orleans to play one song with Paul McCartney?’” Brian Ray’s audition to join Paul McCartney’s band was a last-minute live performance – at the Super Bowl

The multi-instrumentalist didn't have long to prepare for one of the most public auditions in the history of rock and roll

Guitar World

“When we did the final Slayer show for 60,000 people, Scott Ian used it as his primary tone”: Gary Holt's favorite budget pedal emulates Eddie Van Halen's iconic “Brown Sound” – and it retails for less than a $100

Holt reveals his new go-to budget-friendly brand – and offers some of his mini-pedal recommendations

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