Guitar Player

GUITARISTS CAN BE a notoriously conservative bunch when it comes to the instruments they choose to play. But when you push the envelope far enough, it eventually breaks through to an entirely new standard that many innovative musicians can’t help but

WHEN J MASCIS HUNKERED down at his own Bisquiteen Studio in Amherst, Massachusetts, to begin work on his new and fourth studio solo album, it was with the intention of approaching it much like he had the previous three — as a largely acoustic affair,

IN THE LATE 1960s, Davey Johnstone was a 17-year-old folk-based guitarist when he left his hometown of Edinburgh to try his hand at the London rock and roll session scene. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in confidence and tenacity. “I wa

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, a group of super-serious musicians — guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann — formed a band after an impromptu NAMM show jam. Ever since then, they’ve been doing everything they can not to take t

CHRIS SPEDDING’S LONG career has seen him move from first-call session musician for 1960s pop producers to solo chart success at the height of the U.K. glam-pop scene, in 1975. In later years, his most visible role for U.S. audiences has been as Robe

Apparently, even the Space Ace needs an occasional boost. When Ace Frehley began work on his latest solo record, the results, he admits, didn’t exactly put him over the moon. “I REMEMBER COMING out of the studio, which is in my basement,” Ace tells G

LENNY KRAVITZ HAS been curating his own unique blend of rock, soul, funk and R&B since the appearance of his debut album, Let Love Rule, way back in 1989. Unafraid to mix and match genres, he has an impeccable sense of taste and an encyclopedic knowl

“This was a crunchy riff idea I had — very simple. I was trying to get to the studio one day, and I couldn’t get a cab to pick me up, because a lot of times, if you’re Black and you’re hailing a cab, and you’re going uptown to Harlem, or Brooklyn or

SINCE BECOMING A force on the New Jersey rock circuit at age 12, Steve Brown has made guitar playing the center of his life. His glam-metal group Trixter enjoyed success through the 1980s, culminating in their 1990 hit “Give It to Me Good.” Along the

YOU’VE PLAYED ALL different types of guitars, but you always come back to the Les Paul. What is it about the guitar that makes it perfect? Is it the shape? Is it the feel of the neck? All of those things. Are you aware that on the Les Paul, the neck

WHEN CHRIS AND Rich Robinson announced in 2019 that they were reuniting as the Black Crowes, it seemed that the endeavor might function strictly as a look back at the past. In short order, the brothers — with Chris on vocals and Rich on guitar, and f

GUITARS Gibson Les Paul Custom (Sunburst, three-pickup), Gibson Les Paul Custom (Black, three-pickup), 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Blue Sparkle), Gibson Les Paul 1960 Standard (Tobacco Sunburst), Epiphone Randy Rhoads Les Paul (Made in Japan), Xav

IF YOU’VE LISTENED to a Black Crowes record or ogled the stacks of vintage amps that sit stage left during the band’s shows, you’re aware that guitarist Rich Robinson is a tone and gear aficionado. Indeed, he tells Guitar Player, “Tone has always bee

GENERALLY, WHEN WE rock guitarists ponder adding a new technique to our arsenal, we find ourselves gravitating toward tackling a new and challenging way to negotiate the fretboard, or woodshedding a new picking technique. By the same token, when we h

DURING HIS SOLO Guitar Player Presents performance at SFJazz this past January 18, Julian Lage told an anecdote about the pressure he felt to speak entertainingly to the audience while he switched tunings. As he retuned by ear in front of the sell-ou

THE LATEST AMP-EMULATOR pedal from UAFX offers three models from a stable of 1968 100-watt Marshalls: the Super Lead, Super Bass and Brown. The Brown is an exclusive setting that emulates a Super Lead with a Variac auto-transformer in line to lower t

TAYLOR’S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT at the 2024 NAMM show was a Bob Taylor side project honoring the company’s 50th anniversary: the AV150-10, a boutique dual-channel acoustic amplifier that has taken on a life of its own under the brand name Circa 74. Taylor

A FEW YEARS ago, while in rehearsals with his band, Red Dragon Cartel, revered hard rocker Jake E. Lee decided to try out a new amp that had recently shown up at his studio: a Friedman Smallbox 50. According to the amp’s maker, Los Angeles guitar gea

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NO SONG IS a guaranteed smash, but when it serves as the theme for a hit movie, its odds increase dramatically. That’s what Survivor learned when they were asked to write the signature tune for Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky III sequel in 1982. The resul