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Ronnie Wood has looked back on his early induction into The Rolling Stones, and how he was given 300 songs to learn rapidly with a little help from Keith Richards.

Wood began working with the Stones during the recording of their Black And Blue album, just after the departure of Mick Taylor. Though Richards recorded the vast majority of guitar work on the record, the band also used it as a window of opportunity to trial Taylor’s replacement.

• READ MORE: “He got to just be the bass player in the band, and he f**king loved it”: Why Paul McCartney loved playing bass on The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds album

Wood became a touring member of the band in 1975 for their Tour Of The Americas, and became a permanent member in 1976. Speaking to Uncut surrounding the upcoming November reissue of Black And Blue, Wood looks back on the chaos of joining the band and having to catch up to the others.

Recalling his contributions to Black And Blue, he shares: “One of my favourites was Hey Negrita, the first song that I wrapped in the studio and said, ‘Right, we’re going to play this.’ And Charlie [Watts] said, ‘We’ve only known him five minutes and he’s bossing us around already.’ That was my classic introduction to the boys in the studio. I think I got an ‘inspiration by’ [credit] or something.”

He adds, “Joining the band, I had to take a deep breath and say, ‘Here we go.’ You’d either got it or you hadn’t. From Beggars Banquet onwards, I loved all those albums of theirs. When I actually joined, I thought, ‘I’m finally home now.’ I think I had about 300 songs that I had to learn rapidly. Keith kept me going. We were playing and playing, we hardly slept, and it was certainly a crash course.”

Speaking of the difference between being in The Stones’ inner circle and actually being a member of the band, he says, “[This was the beginning] of being a part of the outfit, the circus. And I remember Keith’s, ‘I’ve got a great idea – let’s not tell anyone you’re in the band.’ Great, thanks, Keith! I came in by osmosis. There was never actually an announcement, so I was still the new boy 20 years later.”

The new, Super Deluxe Box Set reissue of Black And Blue will be released on 14 November via Universal. Arriving as a 5LP vinyl box set and a 4CD box set, both editions come alongside a Blu-ray disc, a 100-page hardback book, and a replica tour poster. In other Stones news, producer Andrew Watt recently teased that another album is on the way from the band.

You can pre-order the Black And Blue Super Deluxe Box Set now, or check out more from the band via their official website.

The post Ronnie Wood reveals his marathon initiation when joining The Rolling Stones: “Keith kept me going… we hardly slept” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Though rarely omitted from any conversation surrounding the world’s most legendary guitar players, Eddie Van Halen wasn’t the best teacher, or so says his son Wolfgang.

It’s certainly true that just because someone is proficient or highly skilled in something, doesn’t mean they share the same skill in imparting that knowledge. And as Wolfgang Van Halen explains in a new interview with Guitar.com, for Eddie, that skill didn’t come so naturally.

• READ MORE: Sean Long’s new Neon Pink Charvel signature model might secretly be the most metal guitar of 2025

“My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher – he’d tell you that himself,” Wolfgang recalls, adding that his father once tapped Mr Big and Racer X virtuoso Paul Gilbert to give him a lesson instead.

“He even called Paul Gilbert one time and asked him if he would give me a lesson, and he laughed his ass off,” he continues. “That just shows you how he felt about being a teacher.

“And, yeah, he was right. He’d be like, ‘Just do it like this.’ ‘Well, how?!’ You’re at such a different level, you’re just not even thinking in the same way.”

While Eddie Van Halen was, in large part, known for being technically gifted, what Wolfgang took from him the most was his sense of melody and musicality.

“When it comes to Dad, people always talk about the tapping and the shredding and stuff, but I think very much what he instilled in me is that melody is song,” he goes on. 

“If you can hum it, if you can think of it and sing it, that’s the best kind of solo – which is another reason why I love Aaron [Marshall, Intervals] so much! 

“But, yeah, I think his ability to not only be an amazing rhythm guitar player, but just to merge melody with the shreddiness, and never letting melody fall, is a very important thing as a musician. While shredding scales is technically impressive, it’s almost artistically stale.”

Read the full interview – in which Wolfgang Van Halen names his five favourite guitar players – at Guitar.com.

The post “My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher”: Eddie Van Halen once asked Paul Gilbert to give his son Wolfgang a guitar lesson appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When it comes to titles, Wolfgang Van Halen usually keeps things simple. He named his hard rock outfit Mammoth (formerly Mammoth WVH due to trademark issues), after one of the bands his legendary dad Eddie played in before forming Van Halen. The project’s first album was self-titled. Then, its second was given the logical moniker Mammoth II. Now, though, album three is breaking tradition, brandishing the somewhat ominous title of The End.

• READ MORE: The guitar influences of Kurt Cobain

“The evolution from the second album to this one warranted this being the first album to actually be titled,” Wolfgang tells me. “This just didn’t feel like Mammoth III to me. There’s a lot of songwriting evolution and maturity and confidence that I don’t think were there on the last two. It just felt like the right time to actually break out.”

In contrast to his dad’s famously exuberant work as the guitarist for Van Halen, Wolfgang started his career playing less showy rock’n’roll music, inspired by the likes of Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails to focus on the song rather than the shred. However, on The End, things feel less conscious, more fun. The title track opens with some invigorating guitar tapping that may seem like an homage to Eruption, but it’s actually a sequence that Wolfgang’s had in his back pocket for more than 10 years. Plus, throughout the rest of the album, there’s more soloing and theatricality, without compromising the simplicity and directness of Mammoth’s trademark hooks.

“This pre-production process was a bit different in comparison to the last few,” says Wolfgang. “Instead of doing it on my laptop, we had the studio all ready to go. I would just try something [on guitar], run out to the drums, play it, run back and play bass to it, and it was this really creative, electric, quick-reaction environment. You could tell if something was working or not right away, rather than wasting three hours on a computer trying to figure it out.”

Given the greater focus on the guitar on this new album, we went on to ask Wolfgang to name his five favourite guitar players. His answers ranged from the very obvious to the totally unexpected.

Image: Travis Shinn

Aaron Marshall, Intervals

“Aaron is a close personal friend of mine, so it’s a bit tough to separate that, but, man, he’s probably my most favourite guitar player out there right now. What’s so fantastic about him is that he has this melodic sensibility that’s unrivalled by a lot of other guitar players. Rather than being shreddy, he’s almost the singer of his band, as well as the solo guitar player. The first song off of his album [2020] album Circadian, 5-HTP, is probably one of my favourite songs ever. I know the guys get sick of it: every time I have a guitar in drop D at soundcheck, I end up playing that song.

“Growing up, you hit these phases of, like, ‘I wanna hear more of this type of music.’ When I heard Meshuggah for the first time, I started exploring and found Periphery and Tesseract, and then I came upon Intervals. I was like, ‘This is exactly my shit.’ I really fell in love with Aaron’s playing on their [2012] EP In Time, the songs Epiphany and Tapestry.

“I was already a huge, huge fan of his, and then Mammoth came out. He messaged me and said he liked my albums, which blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that! Through the magic of social media, we met and hung out a handful of times, and we were actually able to tour together last year, which was really cool.”

Adam Jones, Tool

“I think, in terms of every instrument I play – bass, guitar, drums and singing – each member of Tool is on the respective Mount Rushmore for their instrument. The first song I heard from them was Third Eye [from 1996’s Ænima], which is funny, because it wasn’t a single or anything. It kind of opened my mind – opened my third eye, so to speak – regarding what music can be. I was like, ‘This is a 13-minute song! Not just a four-minute thing!’ It blew my mind when I was in seventh grade. There’s power in its simplicity: when Adam just holds down the rhythms and almost lets Justin [Chancellor, bass] take the lead, they have such a great connection.

“When it comes to rhythm playing, Adam is almost like the Malcolm Young of metal. He is such a fucking awesome rhythm guy, and he’s a great lead guy, too. Things like the talkbox solo on Jambi are just the best.

“In Mammoth, the influence of bands like Tool and Meshuggah will come out in places you don’t expect. If you listen to [the song] The End, the very end of it, there’s this double-kick, half-time, metal-ey thing. They just pop up! Even on the last album [2023’s Mammoth II], on Right?, there’s that Meshuggah-ey breakdown in the middle after the solo. It’s never intentional: I try not to stifle the creative process by overthinking and just do what feels right.”

Eddie Van Halen

“There was a benefit I played in fourth grade where I played drums and my dad played guitar. I remember, we went out to the car afterwards and some guy came up and asked him to sign something. He left, then he put on a different shirt and came back. I think – in moments like that, seeing that sort of desperation – I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, my dad’s probably a big deal, huh?’

“When it comes to Dad, people always talk about the tapping and the shredding and stuff, but I think very much what he instilled in me is that melody is song. If you can hum it, if you can think of it and sing it, that’s the best kind of solo – which is another reason why I love Aaron so much! But, yeah, I think his ability to not only be an amazing rhythm guitar player, but just to merge melody with the shreddiness, and never letting melody fall, is a very important thing as a musician. While shredding scales is technically impressive, it’s almost artistically stale.

“My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher – he’d tell you that himself. He even called [Mr Big and Racer X guitarist] Paul Gilbert one time and asked him if he would give me a lesson, and he laughed his ass off. That just shows you how he felt about being a teacher. And, yeah, he was right. He’d be like, ‘Just do it like this.’ ‘Well, how?!’ You’re at such a different level, you’re just not even thinking in the same way.”

Angus Young and Malcolm Young, AC/DC

“I couldn’t keep going without talking about AC/DC and how important those brothers are. I’m usually not the most bluesy guy – I respect it, but it’s just not my vibe – but what I love about Angus is how he manages to take the relaxing, sort of scaly stuff of blues and add this anarchistic punkiness to it, just by being so fucking crazy. It’s attitude: it almost doesn’t matter what he’s playing, it’s how he’s playing it. Look at songs like Down Payment Blues from [1978 album] Powerage. The solo is one note, and it’s also one of my dad’s favourite solos ever.

“Angus is still an incredible showman in his 70s. I know some people try to poke and make fun of him [for still wearing his schoolboy stage outfit aged 70], but I’d love to see you fucking do that. Personally, I try to avoid that sort of 80s-esque performance stuff. I get a lot of criticism from 80s music fans who love Van Halen, see me and go, ‘Why aren’t you jumping around?’ My idea is somebody like Tool or Meshuggah: they just stand on the stage and fucking destroy.

“Malcolm, to me, is the greatest rhythm guitar player to have ever lived. There’s nothing more perfect than his rhythm, his metre, his timing, and his tone was out of this world. If you listen to something like If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), there’s nothing like it. And he did some of the best background vocals ever, like on TNT and Thunderstruck.”

Mark Tremonti, Alter Bridge/Creed

“Mark is another guitarist where he’s got the shred but he knows what makes a song good. The shred never overtakes that. I think people are so surprised that the dude from Creed can shred like that. I don’t think enough people recognise how important Alter Bridge are and the versatility they have: you have [acoustic ballad] Watch Over You, but then you have [heavy metal track] Cry of Achilles.

“I was in Mark’s solo band from 2012 to 2016. I’m on [the albums] Cauterized and Dust, which is pretty funny, because I only played one or two shows of that material. I toured the whole first album [2012’s All I Was], and that was the first time I came to the UK and Europe to tour. He became a personal friend. He’s such a silly, fun dude. He doesn’t take anything too seriously.”

The End is out on 24th October via BMG.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen names his five favourite guitar players appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Justin Hawkins of The Darkness believes there’s one virtuoso that could have rivalled Eddie Van Halen back in the 1980s, if only he wasn’t “born 10 years too late”.

Talking to Rick Beato, Hawkins claims Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt would be “competing with Eddie Van Halen if he were a bit younger”, but that his talents went under the radar in the ’90s.

• READ MORE: Sean Long’s new Neon Pink Charvel signature model might secretly be the most metal guitar of 2025
  

According to Hawkins, Bettencourt may have become better known if Extreme were thrust into the bigger limelight that was 1980s glam metal, rather than being subject to the differing tastes of the ’90s.

“Extreme was successful with their couple of ballads… More Than Words was such a big hit, and it transcended like an Everly Brothers type song… But Nuno is one of the greatest guitar players of his generation.”

He’s also quick to add that he doesn’t think the rise of grunge had anything to do with what killed off glam rock. Instead, he thinks that glam metal bands like “Nitro… killed it because then nobody’s going to be able to sing higher than Jim Gillette. Nobody’s going to be able to play as fast or as ridiculous as Michael Angelo Batio.”

“So I think Nitro was the natural conclusion of that, and it meant the end for bands like Extreme unfortunately and other interesting glam rock stuff from that period.”

Hawkins’ own band The Darkness gained success in the 2000s after Extreme, and reminisces about what his own band might have missed out on: “Rivalries are what got people excited about music. It seemed like the ’80s were this wonderfully tumultuous decade”.

Hawkins doesn’t believe that rock should return to the old days, though. As he told Kerrang! earlier this year: “It’s about getting to a certain age and realising that the world’s changing, and you’ve gotta change or that’s you fucked, you get left behind. And that’s rock.”

“It’s actually from the perspective of rock – rock is a middle-aged guy in a world full of people who are just generation… whatever the fuck it is now, and it has to wake up and be part of it.”

The post Justin Hawkins thinks there’s one guitarist who could have rivalled Eddie Van Halen – if only he was born 10 years earlier appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Charvel has once again partnered with While She Sleeps guitarist Sean Long on a new limited-edition version of his Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH HT M signature model. It’s essentially an updated take on Long’s Charvel signature model, which arrived back in 2022. 

Sporting a fresh lick of paint – Neon Pink, no less – the new version boasts a similar spec sheet to its predecessor, including a set of EMG 57 and 66 pickups. The 57, Charvel explains, evokes an “unmistakably PAF quality with plenty of headroom and punch”, while the 66 in the neck position offers a “warm, smooth mid-range and expansive lows”.

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Notably, where the original Sean Long signature model features a neon yellow cover on the bridge pickup, the new Neon Pink version’s pickups do not. We don’t blame Charvel here; pink and yellow would have been bold, to say the least…

Elsewhere, the guitar features an HT6 string-through-body hardtail bridge, designed for “improved intonation and enhanced sustain and resonance”.

Credit: Charvel

The spec sheet is complete by an alder body – crafted into Charvel’s San Dimas Style 1 shape, of course – as well as a bolt-on maple neck with graphite reinforcement, with a Speed Neck profile and rolled fingerboard edges for enhanced playing comfort.

Further appointments include Luminlay side dots, 22 frets, a 12”-16” compound radius fingerboard, a heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel and Charvel-branded die-cast locking tuners.

Sean Long is the primary songwriter of Sheffield metalcore heavyweights While She Sleeps, and his Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH HT M signature model is designed to keep up with his “high-speed playing, scorching sound and sinister, yet eccentric style”.

“This is essentially the same as my original signature, the only difference is that it’s fucking pink, and this pickup [pointing to the bridge pickup], is black,” Long explains in the video above. Why? Because it’s awesome.”

He goes on: “I grew up listening to bands like Blink-182, Sum 41, Rage [Against the Machine], stuff like that. And then I discovered metalcore and metal. This kind of music completely captivated me – I’d never heard anything like it before…

“So the design – one of the fundamental aspects of my thinking was, I wanted it to be as simplistic as possible. I did not want it to be intimidating. I wanted it to seem aesthetically digestible. Because I remember when I was a kid going to music stores, it always felt like I wasn’t good enough to be there.

“If you looked at the guitars at the top, you would never have the balls to ask the guy to get it down. And that feeling has always sat with me. There was always this intimidating feeling with a lot of gear. So I wanted this to look appealing and approachable.”

The Limited Edition Sean Long Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH HT M is available now, priced at $1,469.99.

Learn more at Charvel.

The post Sean Long’s new Neon Pink Charvel signature model might secretly be the most metal guitar of 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Buying an electric guitar can be a somewhat daunting task – there are countless options out there, and rarely a “bad” instrument to be had, even at the budget end of things. So we’ve helpfully split this list of the best electric guitars into discrete categories, including our best overall pick.

• READ MORE: The 10 Best Jazzmasters for for beginners, upgraders and offset aficionados

Why? Well, the best guitar for you might be an affordable workhorse, ready to be thrown around on stage or into the back of a van without a care in the world. Or it could be a beautiful, premium instrument – a guitar to be looked after for life. The best guitar for you might offer up a palette of subtle, dynamic sounds. Or, it might pummel an amp’s front end to raise sonic hellfire. So, as well as our best overall pick, all of the guitars in this list excel in a given category – with everything from traditional classics to modern masterpieces, and premium instruments to beginner-friendly budget models represented. Let’s dive in.

The best electric guitars, at a glance:

• Our Pick: Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster
• Best Les Paul: Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard
• Best Jazzmaster: Fender Player II Jazzmaster
• Best Stratocaster: Fender Vintera II ’50s Stratocaster
• Best affordable guitar: Epiphone Les Paul Special
• Best high-end guitar: Gibson Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul Standard
• Most unique guitar: Rivolta Forma Series Sferata
• Best metal guitar: Jackson LM-87 Lee Malia
• Best beginner guitar: Squier Sonic Mustang HH
• Best headless guitar: Strandberg Boden Essential 6
• Best baritone: Rivolta Mondata Baritone VII
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Our Pick: Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster

Image: Adam Gasson

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The Player II range represents some of the finest guitars to come out of Fender’s Ensenada, Mexico factory to date, and their overall quality-to-affordability ratio made them great options for the odd pickup swap or hardware change. Fender itself has always been keenly aware of the Ship Of Theseus mindset its guitars encourage – and so here we have the pre-modded Player II Modified Stratocaster, replete with some excellent noiseless single-coils, locking tuners and extra switching options.

The result is an extremely versatile Strat – even for a Strat – with some very road-ready hardware, all for a great price. What more do you need?

Need more? Read our Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster review.

Best Les Paul: Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard

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If you want an awesome Les Paul that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, then this collaboration between Epiphone and the Gibson Custom Shop could be it. Thanks to premium electronics and Gibson-spec pickups, there’s a wide range of responsive tone-shaping options on tap. Construction is solid and mostly sticks to vintage specifications, too – perfect if you want to see why the 1959 Les Paul Standard has remained one of the most legendary guitars of all time. It’s also a smart purchase when you compare it to what’s available at the most accessible end of the Gibson USA catalogue.

Need more? Read our Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard review.

Best Jazzmaster: Fender Player II Jazzmaster

The Player II Jazzmaster

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The Player II series from Fender has updated its core designs to be more approachable than ever – and the oh-so-singular Jazzmaster is always a tricky needle to thread in that regard. Complete purists may bemoan the lack of the rhythm circuit, but that aside there’s a lot to like, including the subtle wobble you can get from that Jazzmaster vibrato, and the bright, articulate single-coil pickups.

• READ MORE: The 10 Best Jazzmasters for for beginners, upgraders and offset aficionados

But the star of the show is undeniably the neck – first off, rosewood is back, replacing the mildly controversial pau ferro and generally being a lot nicer to look at. And on the playing side the fretboard edges are now rolled, meaning an incredibly comfy playing experience.

Need more? Read our Fender Player II Jazzmaster review.

Best vintage-style Stratocaster: Fender Vintera II ’50s Stratocaster

Fender Vintera II ’50s Stratocaster. Image: Adam Gasson

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Fender’s Mexican-made Vintera II line is an excellent place to turn if you want maximum bang for your buck in terms of sound, playability and looks. That remains true here with the Vintera II 50s Stratocaster: while it’s not a slavishly accurate recreation like the American Vintage II line is, there’s still a lot to love if you love a good traditional Strat, including the narrow-tall frets and the 7.25-inch radius.

The neck finds itself on the accessible side of vintage, with a softer V that takes the edge off its thickness, meaning a more characterful feel than that of the Vintera I necks. The concessions to modernity, where they have been made, are welcome ones too: a the bridge-wired tone control and five-way switch might not be totally accurate, but they sure are useful. In all, it’s a great Strat experience for a great piece.

Need more? Read our Fender Vintera II ’50s Stratocaster review.

Best affordable guitar: Epiphone Les Paul Special

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Compared to the pricey Custom Shop collaborations Epiphone likes to shout about, the standard Les Paul special – first launched as part of the Inspired By Gibson range in 2020 – is an affordable workhorse that, unless you really, really hate the Epiphone headstock, has no discernible compromises. Although its neck profile is on the chunkier side, it’s very playable – and not quite as fat as some baseball-bat examples out there. Importantly, its pickups aren’t messing around, either, with all of the vocal midrange P90s are famous for.

Need more? Read our Epiphone Les Paul Special review.

Best high-end guitar: Gibson Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul Standard

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From an affordable student-model Les Paul to, well, quite the opposite. The Gibson Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul standard is the absolute pinnacle of Gibson’s modern production guitars, recreating the absolute pinnacle of its vintage instruments. While you may baulk at any level of ageing, the Murphy Lab’s various wearing-in processes – from light to heavy – serve to make the guitar feel like a truly authentic 1950s example, rather than a new guitar built to the same specs. For those of us without six figures to drop on a vintage example, it’ll be the closest we get to owning the real deal.

Need more? Read our Gibson Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul Standard review.

Most unique guitar: Rivolta Forma Series Sferata

The Sferata. Image: Adam Gasson

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There’s nothing wrong with the classics – the kinds of instruments that make a guitar-savvy audience member go, “Oh hey, it’s that guitar.” But maybe you want them to “what it that!?” – if that’s the case, look no further than the Rivolta Forma series. These awesome guitars chuck Gibson and Fender elements into a blender – along with a splash of brutalism, and a healthy dose of the sort of curves normally reserved for experimental Cold War-era aircraft. The Sferata is a particularly cool design standout, landing somewhere between a melted Jaguar and a Les Paul Junior.

But it’s not all about looks. The Forma series also come loaded with some awesome electronics, particularly a dramatically-slanted neck pickup – which our reviewer found to have an awesome and unique voice, thanks to the varied timbre of each string. They’re not the most affordable instruments out there, but Rivolta has a proven track-record of excellent guitars for the money, and, well, where else are you going for a guitar that looks like this?

Need more? Read our Rivolta Forma Series Sferata review.

Best metal guitar: Jackson LM-87 Lee Malia

Jackson Lee Malia LM-87 guitar. Image: Press

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This offset from Jackson is one of the best-looking metal guitars released in recent years, and it follows up its cooler-than-cool aesthetics with great playability and some crushing sounds. But thanks to its versatile set up pickups – with that single-coil in the neck – there’s a lot of range here, too, so it doesn’t always have to be drop-A and tremolo-picking. But, of course, this has ultimately been made for Lee Malia – and so will handle pretty much whatever heaviness you want to throw at it!

Need more? Read our Jackson LM-87 Lee Malia review.

Best beginner guitar: Squier Sonic Mustang HH

Squier Sonic Mustang HH. Image: Adam Gasson

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The Squier Sonic Mustang HH could be a perfect starter guitar, for a good few reasons. It is, of course, very affordable, at less than $200 – but it’s also no slouch in the playability department. It has a short 24-inch scale length, meaning that those with smaller hands will have an easier time with it – and string tension is lower, meaning easier fretting no matter the size of your mitts. And while the pickups aren’t the most deft and articulate humbuckers out there – for getting someone hooked on the sheer joy of a power-chord, they’re perfect.

Need more? Read our Squier Sonic Mustang HH review.

Best headless guitar: Strandberg Boden Essential 6

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It’s undeniable that a headless guitar is not for everyone – but it’s equally undeniable that they’re playing a massive role in the modern guitar landscape, espcially in the proggier, mathier outlands of heavier music. For the uninitiated, the Strandberg Boden 6 offers an enticing invite into that world – it has a rather reasonable price of $999, as well as an approachable featureset.

Six strings and a non-fanned fretboard mean that there’s only so much you’ll need to get used to if you’re coming over from a more traditional electric. Our reviewer found some truly excellent and versatile sounds on board, and had an excellent time with the ergonomics of the instrument. If you’re a fan of a comfortable, light guitar, there are very few lighter or more comfortable instruments – the Boden Essential 6 offers all of the awesome ergonomic benefits of a modern headless, with none of the extended-range hurdles, and all at a very approachable price.

Need more? Read our Strandberg Boden Essential 6 review.

Best baritone: Rivolta Mondata Baritone VII

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The Rivolta Mondata Baritone VII is, as you can tell immediately, an absolute stunner. But it’s as sonically beautiful as it is aesthetically, with a versatile combination of a humbucker and a P90 for exploring all corners of the downtuned sound. Need to get even more old-school? A strangle switch lets you starve some low-end for some bright tic-tac basslines, but whack things back up to full and let the 28-inch scale length add clarity to your ultra-low riffage.

Need more? Read our Rivolta Mondata Baritone VII review.

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you.What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended to you in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post The best electric guitars for all styles and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Most guitarists probably engage in some degree of a warm-up pre-show, but everyone has a different routine unique to them.

But few guitarists have a warm-up routine that rivals that of Dream Theater‘s John Petrucci, according to Steve Morse.

• READ MORE: Is a Back to the Future Marty McFly signature ES-345 about to become a reality?
  

Deep Purple and Dream Theater have previously shared the stage, with the latter supporting the former on their Touring to Infinity shows in 1998.

“One thing I love seeing is how John Petrucci will just sit down and do a warm-up, no matter what, even if you’re talking to him, he’s going to keep on,” Morse tells The No Cover Charge podcast in a new interview.

“[He’s] got a metronome going. He’s going to build it up, build it up. And when he goes up on stage, it’s no problem… He keeps getting better with his musical ideas and everything, too.

“So he’s blown me away with the level that he’s been able to keep that alternate picking and even incorporating some hybrid things, just to serve the music. That’s as high of a level [as] I’ve seen of somebody preparing for a gig.”

Steve Morse’s appreciation for John Petrucci is certainly reciprocal, too. In a Guitar Player interview in 2022, Petrucci said that Morse’s playing was “The wildest, most incredible stuff I had ever heard.”

“There are moments that you can pinpoint and say they were truly life-changing, and for me, hearing Steve Morse play guitar was one of them.”

The post Steve Morse reveals the guitarist with the best pre-show warm-up routine he’s ever seen appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Drummers often hold the band together. And this can mean getting a good read on the personalities of other members of the band, and situations where clashes may arise.

In The Yardbirds this was Jim McCarty’s job, and observing from behind the drum kit gave him a stark perspective of the dynamic between Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

• READ MORE: Is a Back to the Future Marty McFly signature ES-345 about to become a reality?
  

In a new interview with Guitar Player, McCarty reveals that working with these musical giants in their formative years was not always easy: “Going back to the time, they were all learning how to do it… We were all trying to play and having good fun playing that sort of music. And they were all very different. Very.”

Clapton was, as McCarty recalls, “a very moody sort of guy”. He explains: “We’d be travelling in a transit van, going to the shows, and he would sit in the corner and not talk to anybody.”

As McCarty explains, tensions arose over the band’s desperation to have a hit, versus Eric’s zealousness for the blues: “He’d be in a little world of his own, obviously quite unhappy with the way it was going.”

“Eric was coming from a difficult upbringing, because he wasn’t really brought up by his parents,” McCarty says. “He was brought up by his grandmother, who he thought was his mother. We met her, and she was a lovely woman, very chatty and very friendly. But that gave him a challenged outlook on things, and I think he took the blues up as his personal crusade.

“He was totally dedicated to the blues, and also seemingly very ambitious… Eric was obviously gonna go somewhere. You knew that yes, one day he’ll be a big star, ’cause he was driven to do that, and he was getting a reputation while he was playing with us. He used to copy blues solos – Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy or Buddy Guy or somebody – and copy them note for note before he got his own thing going.”

Clapton ultimately left the Yardbirds shortly after the release of For Your Love in 1965. In his own words, Clapton said he left the Yardbirds for John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers because of their “earthier” blues sound, stating that he continued to play guitar in the same way but that the two bands’ interpretations of his music meant it came across differently.

The post Yardbirds drummer explains why Eric Clapton was difficult to be in a band with: “He took the blues up as his personal crusade” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in June, it was announced that Gibson and actor Michael J. Fox had launched a worldwide search for the missing iconic Cherry Red ES-345 which appears in Back to the Future.

Well, it turns out Gibson had hatched a plan behind the scenes, as the brand is now teasing what looks to be a production run version of the legendary guitar played by Marty McFly in the film’s famous school dance scene.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen thinks it’s a “miracle” Van Halen’s final album was even made

Famously historically inaccurate for the scene – guitar trivia nuts have long pointed out that the 1958 ES-345 played by Marty McFly had no place in a scene set in 1955…

But this criticism is generally the subject of debate for a very small cross section of the general population, who otherwise lapped up the iconic scene which sees the film’s protagonist perform Chuck Berry classic Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment Under the Sea school dance.

While the teaser is very much just a teaser, it points to something being announced on 21 October. The social media post shows a Cherry Red ES-345 shrouded in smoke, propped up against the DeLorean DMC-12 which doubles as a time machine in the movie. “Time circuits set for 21 October, 2025,” the caption reads.

That’s the extent of the information we have at this time, but we’re confident in our assumption that a Marty McFly signature ES-345 might be on the way…

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Gibson’s search for the original guitar launched earlier this year recruited not only Michael J. Fox, but his Back to the Future co-stars Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Harry Waters Jr. and Huey Lewis. 

“Guitar has always been a big part of my life,” Fox noted. “When we talked about the ‘Enchantment Under The Sea’ scene in Back To The Future, I sat down with the cinematographer and choreographer and said I want to riff through all of my favourite guitarists, like doing Jimi Hendrix behind the head, Pete Townshend doing a windmill, and the Eddie [Van Halen] hammer thing, it was so cool that they were open to that, and we laid it all out there.

“I’m really happy with the scene because it was an expression of my love for guitar and all the great players. I didn’t realise the influence the scene had on people. John Mayer said, ‘I play guitar because of you,’ and Chris Martin said the same thing, and I am glad they took it further than I did, they went to the trouble of being really good players. I just love the guitar, and I love the movie.”

Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian added: “This is one of the most exciting moments at Gibson for me. Back To The Future is one of the most important and significant movies of my life, and the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ school dance scene marked me musically in a profound way. 

“Working with Michael J. Fox, Bob Gale and the rest of the Back To The Future team is a dream come true. I hope we find Marty’s Gibson ES-345! To everyone out there who is as passionate as I am about this iconic film, please help us find it!”

If you need a refresher on that classic school dance scene, you can check that out below:

We’ll keep you updated with more info on this teaser as we have it…

The post Is a Back to the Future Marty McFly signature ES-345 about to become a reality? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$329/£299/€272, gamechangeraudio.com

Don’t ever stop being weird, Gamechanger. Eight years after stealing the show at NAMM 2017 with the Plus Pedal, this Latvian company is still going all-out for radicalness. And in the case of the Auto Series, that means three stompboxes – a delay, a reverb and a chorus – that each have a patchbay and a set of cables for customising the circuit.

• READ MORE: Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble review – a compact Leslie sim that doesn’t compromise on features

This, then, is a stereo delay pedal that thinks it’s a synth module. So if you like the idea of creating unique sounds where different aspects of the effect are controlled by playing dynamics or pitch – or possibly both – then things are about to get interesting. And if you don’t? Well, it could still be fun. In parts.

Image: Press

Gamechanger Audio Auto Delay – is it easy to use?

Relax – it doesn’t have to be bamboozling. Ignore the left footswitch, focus on the four full-size knobs in the green section, and you can lower yourself gently into the world of the Auto Delay without fear of setting fire to your brain. Because, to start with at least, this is a straightforward stereo echo generator.

Those knobs control delay level, tone, time and repeats (feedback), while a three-way slider lets you set the stereo panning – none, 50 per cent or full ping-pong – and another flicks between tape, analogue and digital modes. Easy – but brace yourself, because that’s where the simple stuff ends.

With the ‘auto’ footswitch engaged, the idea is to use the cables to set up secondary settings (adjusted via the mini-knobs) that will kick in according to the level or pitch of your playing. For example, patch from ‘dynamics’ to ‘level’ and you can make the delay get louder when the input signal hits a certain threshold; or link ‘pitch’ to ‘repeats’ and you can send it into cascading feedback whenever you go up the neck.

There are two patch outputs from the dynamic section, and two from pitch, so you’re free to set up multiple parameter changes at the same time – and you can of course choose the levels at which these changes happen. Sound fiddly? It is, and the manual is too wordy to be much help, but it’s mostly quite intuitive once you’ve cracked the concept.

Image: Press

Gamechanger Audio Auto Delay – what does it sound like?

In theory, you could buy this pedal as a standard delay and use the patchbay as a place to keep your mid-gig Snickers. If you do this, you’re unlikely to have any complaints (apart from getting chocolate on your fretboard); it does the job well, in mono or stereo. It’s a pity there’s no DMM-style modulation option, though – this might have been more useful than the three-way mode switch, which largely duplicates what the tone control is doing.

But it’s the dynamic effects that have brought you this far – so are they any good? On the whole, yes. There are obvious use cases for some setups: having the repeats get quieter when you’re playing low notes could be a nice way to stop things getting mushy, while toning down the brightness on louder lead breaks might prevent an overload of percussive hits. More creatively, you can also use delay time changes to create wild pitch-sweeps as you cross the threshold.

Sometimes the results of a new patching arrangement turn out to be less musically appealing than you might expect, and I’ve a nagging feeling that, for some players, the fun won’t last very long beyond the initial exploration. But Gamechanger must be used to that by now – it’s the price you pay for being weird.

Image: Press

Gamechanger Audio Auto Delay – should I buy it?

The Auto Delay doesn’t catapult you into unknown sonic territory in the way that some of Gamechanger’s previous efforts do – the advanced effects take a bit of dialling in, and can be more subtle in practice than they might sound in theory. So this is possibly the company’s narrowest niche yet… but if you want to add dynamism to your delay sounds, and don’t mind a bit of hands-on tinkering, it’s a unique piece of kit.

Gamechanger Audio Auto Delay alternatives

The Rainger FX Echo-X (£229) packs some similarly ingenious functionality into a titchy format, with help from the included Igor foot controller. More straightforward multi-mode digital delays include the Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII D1 ($399.99/£379) and Boss DD-200 ($274.99/£249).

The post Gamechanger Audio Auto Delay review – a dynamic delay that lets you wire it up how you want it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Grammy-winning R&B legend D’Angelo – one of the pioneers of neo-soul – has died aged 51 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

In a statement shared with Variety, his family confirmed the singer and guitarist – real name Michael Eugene Archer – died on Tuesday morning (14 October) at his home in New York.

“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life… After a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer, we are heartbroken to announce that Michael D’Angelo Archer, known to his fans around the world as D’Angelo, has been called home, departing this life today, October 14th, 2025,” the statement reads.

“We are saddened that he can only leave dear memories with his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind. We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time but invite you all to join us in mourning his passing while also celebrating the gift of song that he has left for the world.”

Releasing three albums over the course of his career, D’Angelo was a pioneer of the neo-soul R&B subgenre, which blends classic soul with influences from the likes of jazz and hip-hop, often flavouring R&B with more live instrumentation.

Releasing Brown Sugar and Voodoo in 1995 and 2000, respectively, D’Angelo subsequently spent over a decade out of the public eye, before returning with the critically acclaimed Black Messiah in 2014, which featured hits like Really Love and Sugah Daddy.

D’Angelo earned Best R&B Album Grammy wins for both Voodoo and Black Messiah.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, 1974, the son of a Pentecostal minister, D’Angelo taught himself to play piano aged only three. Through his adolescent years, he performed in groups locally, and won an amateur talent competition at Harlem’s Apollo Theater for three consecutive weeks, drawing the attention of EMI executives, who quickly signed him to a publishing deal.

His debut album Brown Sugar was a commercial and critical success, and helped him go on to collaborate with legends including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Q-Tip.

After over a decade out of the public eye after 2000’s Voodoo, D’Angelo returned to music in 2014 with Black Messiah, an album in the works for years, but finished after witnessing the national unrest spurred by protests over the deaths of unarmed Black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

This is a developing story.

The post R&B legend and neo-soul pioneer D’Angelo dies at 51 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In recent years, Van Halen’s final record, A Different Kind of Truth, has faced its fair share of controversy. Most points of contention come from former frontman David Lee Roth, who has publicly slammed the 2012 release and allegedly even got the album pulled from streaming services between 2022 and 2024.

However, the slew of controversies hasn’t soured how the record feels to Wolfgang Van Halen. In a new interview with Noise11, the musician notes that A Different Kind of Truth was a “miracle” record that came together despite the odds.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen admits he finds it “bittersweet” to play his father’s iconic Frankenstein guitar

A mishmash of new tunes and “earlier demos recorded in 2009”, A Different Kind of Truth certainly wasn’t an easy record to piece together. “It took a long time…” Wolfgang admits. “A lot of [the tracks] were rooted in original demo ideas that were never completed. We thought it was a great way of getting the band back into that mindset of how they used to write music.”

“The fact that that record happened at all, I think, is kind of a miracle,” he notes. “But we pulled it off.”

Despite the difficulties, Wolfgang notes that the experience of using the old demos in the studio was like planting a “little seed” to then grow the record from. And it was one of the only chances Wolfgang would have to make a record with his father, Eddie Van Halen.

“I’m glad I got to at least do that once with Dad, have that making-an-album [experience],” he explains. “It was fun. It was a lot of work and it took a lot of time, but I’m very happy with how we got it done.”

Of course, David Lee Roth will probably never see the “fun” in the record. Last February, Roth posted a now infamous YouTube video entitled ‘Family Therapy..’ sharing his views on the 2012 release. In it, the singer labels the release as ‘dead on arrival’, ‘a complete faceplant’ and a sign of Van Halen being ‘kicked to the curb’.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen thinks it’s a “miracle” Van Halen’s final album was even made appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fender has unveiled the all-new American Professional Classic series, shifting the hierarchy of its USA-made product lineup.

The new range replaces the American Performer range, entering above the Mexico-made Player II line and below the American Professional II series, which launched in 2020. Thus, the American Professional Classic series sits as the new entry point to the brand’s American-made instruments.

• READ MORE: Frank Zappa’s prized “Baby Snakes” SG is headed to auction – and could fetch $500,000

The American Professional Classic series – which comprises nine instruments (six guitars and three basses) – is pitched to offer “reliability, versatility and performance at the highest level”, with the tagline: “Tested. Trusted. Night After Night.”

The result is a line of guitars which is deeply rooted in the tried-and-tested Fender blueprints, but with spec sheets geared towards the modern player, including a number of forward-thinking appointments, not least all-new Coastline pickups.

These new pickups are ever-so-slightly overwound, and based on the firm’s Pure Vintage models, for enhanced clarity, punch and dynamic expression, and for “Fender’s signature warmth and bite across every register”. Essentially, it’s classic Fender tone, but hotter.

Other key appointments include enhanced neck profiles – Modern C-shaped with rolled fingerboard edges for speed and playing comfort – as well as upgraded hardware, including vintage bridges and precision ClassicGear tuning heads for “rock-solid” tuning stability.

The line also comes in a curated selection of classic fender finishes, reimagined for modern players with fresh and vibrant options.

Specifically, there’s a classic triple-single-coil-loaded Stratocaster, HSS Strat, Telecaster, Hotshot Telecaster – a successor to the triple-pickup Nashville Telecaster – as well as a Jazzmaster and Jaguar. In the bass department, there’s a Precision Bass, Jazz Bass and a Mustang Bass.

“The American Professional Classic is all about delivering a great playing experience,” says Max Gutnik, Chief Product Officer at FMIC.

“We focused on every detail: from the all-new Coastline pickups, which offer clear, punchy tone across every register, to the Modern-‘C’ neck with rolled fingerboard edges that feels comfortably broken-in from day one.

“We combined vintage-inspired finishes and hardware with thoughtful upgrades like staggered ClassicGear tuners, Mustang saddles on the offsets, and slotted Telecaster barrel saddles. The result is a guitar that’s easy to play, sounds incredible and adapts to any style or stage.”

Fender have tapped Baltimore hardcore outfit Turnstile to front the campaign. Check out the guitars in action during Turnstile live shows in the video below:

“When you’re in a different place constantly, sometimes the most familiar thing is the guitar that you bring every single night,” says Turnstile’s Pat McCrory.

“We look for something that sounds the same every time, sounds exactly how you want it, but also has versatility because spaces change. Sometimes you play outside, sometimes it sounds different, sometimes you play inside or there’s noise lighting. Having some durability but flexibility is very important.”

Pricing for the American Professional Classic series is as follows:

• American Professional Classic Stratocaster – £1,499 / $1,499
• American Professional Classic Stratocaster HSS – £1,549 / $1,549
• American Professional Classic Telecaster – £1,499 / $1,499
• American Professional Classic Hotshot Telecaster – £1,549 / $1,549
• American Professional Classic Jazzmaster – £1,599 / $1,599
• American Professional Classic Jaguar – £1,599 / $1,599
• American Professional Classic Precision Bass – £1,549 / $1,599
• American Professional Classic Jazz Bass – £1,549 / $1,599
• American Professional Classic Mustang Bass – £1,499 / $1,599

Learn more about the American Professional Classic series at Fender.

The post Fender launches the American Professional Classic series, the new entry point to its USA-made lineup appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Frank Zappa’s legendary “Baby Snakes” SG – a heavily modded Gibson SG copy used extensively by the prog hero both onstage and in the studio – is headed to auction, and could fetch up to $500,000, according to some estimates.

Zappa first acquired the guitar from 19-year-old luthiery student Bart Nagel in July 1974, backstage at a show in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to the sale, Nagel had replaced its neck for a three-piece mahogany neck, topped with a 23-fret ebony fingerboard with custom inlays.

• READ MORE: Richie Faulkner on the “pressure” of nailing Judas Priest’s Painkiller guitar parts live: “You can’t mess it up – you’ve got one shot at it”

After purchasing the guitar, Zappa gave it to luthier Rex Bogue for a series of mods to its electronics, like a custom onboard preamp with an 18dB boost and phase switching for a wider array of available tones.

According to Heritage Auctions, the auctioneer in charge of the lot, the guitar was used both onstage and in the studio, with one notable appearance being Frank Zappa’s Mike Douglas Show performance in 1976.

Bidding for the guitar will start at $300,000 on 5 December, and auctioneers are expecting the six-string to sell for a whopping half a million dollars.

“Hitting the market for the very first time, the ‘Baby Snakes’ SG is a true artifact of musical genius,” says Aaron Piscopo, Heritage’s Director of Vintage Guitars & Musical Instruments. “This guitar embodies the boundless intelligence, innovation, and creativity that defined Zappa’s career.”

“Deeply modified to suit Zappa’s avant-garde sonic explorations, the ‘Baby Snakes’ guitar was more than an instrument – it was a vehicle for innovation, experimentation, and artistic rebellion,” adds Heritage Auctions.

“With its ornate aesthetics, 23-fret neck, onboard preamp, and signature tone-shaping electronics, this is the guitar that helped define Zappa’s post-Mothers live sound.”

Learn more about Frank Zappa’s “Baby Snakes” SG at Heritage Auctions.

The post Frank Zappa’s prized “Baby Snakes” SG is headed to auction – and could fetch $500,000 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Bohemian Rhapsody exists in a world of its own. The 1975 track is bursting with piano-led confessions of murder, operatic might and one of the most iconic guitar solos of all time – but, if you ask Queen, there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about it.

In a new interview with Classic Rock, guitarist Brian May reveals that, in the studio, Bohemian Rhapsody was just another standard Queen cut. “People have such a hard time understanding how unsurprising Bohemian Rhapsody was to us,” May says. “If you look as the first album, you’ve got My Fairy King, which is very complex and goes all over the place.”

• READ MORE: “I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid”: Brian May says this modern track is “one of the best rock songs ever”

Fans and peers alike were stunned by the intricacies of Bohemian Rhapsody; apparently producer Roy Thomas Baker laughed in shock when the eccentric Freddie Mercury explained his plan to include an operatic break in the track. But, with a strong back catalogue of absurdities, May wasn’t shocked by Mercury’s ambition.

In May’s opinion, March Of The Black Queen, which dropped a year earlier than Bohemian Rhapsody in 1974, is “way more complicated” than their stand-out hit. “[It was] on the second album, and it is enormously complicated. “So, Bohemian Rhapsody wasn’t a surprise to us” he explains. “It was just: ‘we’ll do another one of these things.’”

Drummer Roger Taylor was equally as comfortable with Bohemian Rhapsody’s unconventional structuring. “As we were constructing the opera bit, we were getting more and more wild,” he recalls. “‘Stick a bit more on, stick another bit in, it’ll all be fine when it gets to the heavy section.’ And it was.”

Despite the operatic sections being written by Mercury, who “knew nothing about opera”, the track was just another way of exploring the band’s musical potential. “We were planting our flag in the ground: ‘This is really us – it’s a bit mad but it’s got everything in it,’” Taylor explains.

While the pair admit they don’t know exactly what the track is about, with May noting “we never really asked each other about our lyrics”, the track continues to be a fan favourite. For that reason, it continues to be a staple for live shows – despite the fact May struggles to play it.

“It’s the most unnatural riff to play you could possibly imagine,” he admitted last year in a chat with Total Guitar. “It’s not a riff that a guitarist would naturally play… and that’s a double-edged sword.”

“It’s difficult for the guitar to get a hold of it, but once you have got hold of it, it’s very unusual,” he continues. “And to be honest, I still don’t find it easy! I can play it at home okay, but in the heat of the battle, when we’re playing it live, and there’s huge adrenaline, it’s the climax of the show and that riff comes along, it’s not the easiest thing to play.”

The post “People have a hard time understanding how unsurprising Bohemian Rhapsody was to us”: Brian May recalls people’s reactions to hearing Queen’s magnum opus for the first time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s no small feat to be tasked with assuming lead guitar duties for Judas Priest, one of the most iconic metal bands to ever exist. 

Richie Faulkner is, of course, up to the task, but as he explains in a new interview with TribLive, he still feels the pressure to nail his guitar parts live, even after having been a member of the outfit since 2011.

• READ MORE: Eric Gales downplays those who praise him as the best guitarist in the business: “I turn on YouTube or Instagram and see some of the baddest players in the world!”

Pointing specifically to 1990 album Painkiller – of which the band is currently celebrating its 35th anniversary on tour – Faulkner reveals: “Whenever we play a song from the Painkiller record or when Rob mentions the Painkiller record, the roof just lifts off the room.”

The Painkiller album features, in addition to its ferocious title track, the likes of Night Crawler, Leather Rebel, A Touch of Evil and One Shot at Glory, with guitars played by KK Downing and Glenn Tipton.

Faulkner goes on: “To be back playing a celebration of that record is always uplifting from our point of view and the crowd as well.

“And the guitar playing on that record is stunning, as we all know: Painkiller, One Shot at Glory, Hell Patrol. All those tracks are relentless guitar playing, like a master, you put that on, learn that and you’ve probably got everything down in your toolbox for heavy metal guitar.

“It’s great to play live because you can’t mess it up, you’ve got one shot at it, you’ve got to get it right or close to right the first time. So it’s a bit of a challenge as a guitar player, but it’s really fun to play and the audience loves it, too.”

But while it’s important for Richie Faulkner to nail the classic guitar parts laid down by KK Downing and Glenn Tipton, he acknowledges that, on fresh Priest material, he wants to inject his own voice and style.

“It’s always been a hard thing for me to have my own voice,” he says while recounting the writing process for the band’s latest album Invincible Shield.

“I played in cover bands when I was younger, and so you make a living emulating everyone else. So you emulate everyone else, but you haven’t got your own voice. So it’s always been a challenge for me to have my own voice. 

“So I always try and add a little bit more of whatever my voice is on the guitar solos. Something that if someone put the record on, they can identify it as mine. I don’t know if I ever achieved that. That’s not really for me to say. That’s for the listener to decide really, but I always try to do that, something that has my character in there somewhere, if that’s possible to do.”

In other news, Richie Faulkner recently revealed he works “three times a day” with a physio while on tour, to manage the damage caused by an aortic aneurysm and stroke he suffered onstage in 2021.

For a full list of upcoming Judas Priest tour dates, head to the band’s official website.

The post Richie Faulkner on the “pressure” of nailing Judas Priest’s Painkiller guitar parts live: “You can’t mess it up – you’ve got one shot at it” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Influences are incredibly important when it comes to musicians developing their own style. Some musicians can become the sum of their influences, while others will find their own voice after being inspired by the artists who came before them – Kurt Cobain is the latter. His brilliant songwriting was highlighted by the way he used his instrument. His goal was never to be flashy or impress anyone with his sweep picking – it was to accentuate the artistic statement he was trying to make, and he was unquestionably successful in his endeavor.

• READ MORE: The Gear Used on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York album

Nevertheless, we can learn a lot by examining the guitarists who influenced the way that Cobain played, both sonically and technically. So, in this article, we’ll take a look at some of the guitarists whose playing helped guide Kurt Cobain to be the musician we all know him as today.

Buzz Osborne

Kurt Cobain frequently acknowledged Buzz Osborne as a mentor and an influence. Their music-centric kinship was a much more personal influence on Cobain’s guitar playing than simply admiring the handiwork of Jimmy Page. Osborne was a local person with whom Cobain could actually talk about his musical ideas. Osborne was an important figure in Cobain’s music journey – a Samwise to his Frodo, if you’ll indulge that overly nerdy metaphor.

Lead Belly

In 1989, while Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan were busy establishing their own bands, they got together to record a series of Lead Belly cover songs for a tribute project they were going to call The Jury. Lead Belly was an early blues musician that Cobain has expressed a lot of admiration for – Bob Dylan also credited Lead Belly for getting him interested in folk music.

Cobain and Lanegan’s version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night ended up being the final track on Nirvana’s Unplugged performance and Mark Lanegan put a version on one of his solo albums. Cobain’s main acoustic used on songs like Polly and Something in the Way was a 12-string Stella, which was likely a tribute to his hero Lead Belly.

John Lennon

It’s probably fair to say that everyone has been influenced by The Beatles or a derivative in one way or another. The Beatles were such a cultural force that it’s hard to ignore them completely if you are a musician. Cobain specifically found John Lennon to be an inspiration. In a 1992 interview with The Advocate, Cobain said, “John Lennon is definitely my favorite Beatle…I just like his attitude. He’s not a great musician, but he’s a great songwriter.”

It was evident that Cobain looked to Lennon, not for his technique or tone, but for more of an overarching blueprint for how to approach the guitar, as simply a tool for writing great songs. As we know, Cobain steered well clear of flashy playing, which helped to shift focus to the songwriting. This was a similar tactic to how John Lennon operated in The Beatles.

Greg Sage

Kurt Cobain has publicly commented on his love for the band Wipers, particularly the songwriting and playing style of guitarist and vocalist, Greg Sage. Wipers were an early punk band who started back in 1977 in Portland, Oregon. Nirvana covered Wipers songs like D-7 and Return of the Rat, on early albums. Furthermore, Sage was a left handed guitarist. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with Cobain being drawn to him. It seems more likely that Cobain loved punk rock and Wipers, while not widely known, were very popular in the early Northwest punk scene.

Warren Mason

This is a name you may not recognize as he was another local person in Cobain’s early musical development. Warren Mason was a guitar teacher who gave a young Cobain guitar lessons for a few months while Cobain was in high school. Cobain’s family eventually pulled him out of the lessons due to poor performance in school. Mason passed away in 2021 but was remembered as a supportive teacher who encouraged creativity. He has said in interviews that Cobain wanted to learn to play Stairway To Heaven. Krist Novoselic also took lessons from Mason. Mason was in a couple of local bands, one was called Fat Chance, which featured Cobain’s uncle on drums. I won’t claim that Mason was a profound influence on what would come to be Cobain’s signature sound, but he was elemental in providing the basis for him learning to play guitar. Guitar instructors are far too often the unsung heroes of the music industry.

Joey Santiago & Black Francis

It’s no secret that Nirvana was heavily influenced by the Pixies, Kurt Cobain even going so far as to say in a January 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, “[With Smells Like Teen Spirit] I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band—or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”

Joey Santiago’s unconventional guitar solos seemed to resonate with Cobain as well as he would often use the space in a song where usually there would be a solo to make a statement with his note choices rather than show off some fancy shred technique he’d been working on.

The Pixies also had an influence on Nirvana’s production, citing Surfer Rosa as one of the main reasons they approached Steve Albini to produce their final studio album In Utero, in 1993.

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list. I tried to stick to artists that Cobain directly referenced in interviews for the purposes of this article. But Cobain was heavily influenced by such a wide array of music – he allowed himself to be inspired by everyone from Flipper and Black Flag to ABBA and Jimmy Page. If there is a lesson to be learned from exploring Cobain’s musical roots, perhaps it’s that – explore all the music you can and allow yourself to be inspired

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There’s no denying Eric Gales possesses some of the best guitar chops in the business. And that’s not counting the fact that the left-handed virtuoso plays a right-handed guitar upside down.

And while he’s appreciative of those who would go as far as to call him the very best guitarist in the world, Gales is quick to point to the level of talent that exists out there, particularly on social media.

• READ MORE: Sammy Hagar says this Van Halen classic sounds “as good as it sounded for 20 years” with Michael Anthony singing instead

“I take it as the highest compliment,” he tells Classic Rock in its new print issue. “I put a lot of years and hard work into my craft, and for people to have that mindset about me is larger than life for me.”

He explains that opening YouTube or Instagram is a quick route to seeing some of the finest guitar talent out there today: “I turn on YouTube or Instagram and I see, in my opinion, some of the baddest players in the world, doing some stuff that is completely mind-boggling,” he says. “My mind is flipped upside down by the stuff I’m seeing.

“But at the end of the day, when the question gets asked who do they think is the baddest motherfucker in the world, they still say, ‘Eric Gales.’ That’s huge for me, man.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gales reflects on A Tribute to LJK, his new album and a collection of his late brother Manuel’s songs recorded by Eric.

“The record is my way of giving honour to my older brother, [who’s] been gone for over 20 years now,” he says, reflecting on Manuel’s (Little Jimmy King) passing in 2002.

“I decided to do some of his songs, through my eyes, with a 2025 approach, to show the world exactly how badass he was, incorporating some allies and friends of mine. I’m ecstatic with it, man.”

He later adds: “[I’m] happy that I’m able to make a project that brings memory to him. Excitement. Happiness. Sadness. It overcame me here and there, but I held it together, because I knew there was a job that needed to be done.

“I’m sure I’ll see my brother again. And not only him. I got other family members [who have] passed on too. And I believe I’ll see them again. I’m sure of it.”

Eric Gales’ new album A Tribute to LJK is out now.

The post Eric Gales downplays those who praise him as the best guitarist in the business: “I turn on YouTube or Instagram and see some of the baddest players in the world!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sammy Hagar has sung the praises of bassist Michael Anthony, saying his longtime bandmate can now confidently perform lead vocal duties on some Van Halen classics.

Lately, Hagar’s been showing more love to Van Halen’s Roth-era hits – something he admits wasn’t always his thing. At his recent Best of All Worlds Las Vegas residency shows, the singer tackled Panama himself, while Anthony took the mic on various fan favourites like Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love, Somebody Get Me a Doctor, and Runnin’ With the Devil.

In a recent chat with Ultimate Classic Rock, the former frontman admits he’s been especially impressed by Anthony’s evolution as a singer, noting how the bassist has moved far beyond his days of providing tight, “sterile” backing harmonies to become “a really good lead vocalist.”

• READ MORE: “This is the first real olive-branch moment Dave and I have had in 100 years”: Sammy Hagar insists that David Lee Roth wasn’t mocking him about being visited by Eddie Van Halen’s ghost

“I like to get Mikey to sing lead, because he sings freaking great,” says Hagar. “People always just hear his background vocals, [but] he’s becoming a really good lead vocalist. Early on, he wasn’t, because he was always used to singing background.”

He explains that background singing requires a more restrained approach but says Anthony has since broken free of that.

“When you sing background, you have to sing very sterile. You have to sing the note and you can’t put any inflection on it or nothing. That’s the lead singer’s job. So the harmony guy has to sing very straight and very on key, and just nail the note and then hold the note [with] very little movement.”

“So when he was singing lead, it was [initially] a little stiff like that. But not anymore,” says Hagar. “In the last couple years, man, Mike’s come around. I’m listening to him sing Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love and in my opinion, it sounds as good as it sounded for [the past] 20 years with him singing [it instead].”

That said, there are still a few songs Hagar keeps for himself.

“Panama is my favourite. You know, that’s the one I want to sing,” he laughs. “I don’t let Mikey sing Panama, because I like singing it. It’s a really fun song to play and sing. It’s badass.”

According to Hagar, revisiting these tracks isn’t just nostalgia; it’s about celebrating the full legacy of Van Halen, both eras included.

“We add those songs to the set because we’re doing a lot of Van Halen stuff,” he says. “Unlike the other guys that didn’t want to play my era, or can’t play my era. I like playing those songs, and I can play and sing those songs, and I think everyone appreciates them.”

The post Sammy Hagar says this Van Halen classic sounds “as good as it sounded for 20 years” with Michael Anthony singing instead appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Iconic as the Stratocaster may be, its history also comes with a heavy set of expectations.

St. Vincent, for one, previously described the Strat as burdened with the “cultural baggage” of “a history of people trying to play like Jimi Hendrix and sucking”, a pressure that “scared” her off the instrument for years.

And now, Cardinal Black guitarist Chris Buck says he too stepped away from his Strat, trading it for a Yamaha Revstar to escape the “baggage” that comes with playing one of the world’s most legendary guitars.

• READ MORE: “I don’t subscribe to the idea that all vintage instruments are great”: Chris Buck on why cheap guitars can be just as effective as expensive ones

Chatting in a new Guitar World interview, the longtime Fender player looks back on the first time he encountered the Revstar: “I walked into a guitar shop in Cardiff and the Revstar had just been released. This would have been like late 2015, maybe. I saw a selection of them on the wall and was immediately intrigued… There were always Yamaha acoustics around the house as well, so Yamaha was always a brand that I was kind of cool with.”

“I just loved the idea of the Revstar being a new guitar,” says Buck. “It wasn’t an S type, it wasn’t a T type, it wasn’t a Les Paul, it was its own thing, and just such a simple, ergonomically kind of attractive guitar – three-way switch, master volume, master tone, two pickups… boom, you’re away.”

But Buck’s reasoning went beyond design. Playing a Strat had started to feel like carrying the weight of history.

“Part of me was getting a little bit miffed or kind of just annoyed with the idea that playing a Strat – as I had done for a very long time until that point – there’s so much baggage that comes with a Strat, arguably more so than any other guitar, because it’s such a distinctive sounding guitar,” says the musician.

“The moment you’re maybe on the neck pickup with an amp that’s kind of pumping, and you’re kind of playing quite aggressively, well, it’s Stevie Ray [Vaughan].”

“If you’re kind of on the bridge pickup, and you’ve got a load of gain or you run into a Marshall, then you’re Ritchie Blackmore. If you’re in the in-between positions… you’re John Mayer. If you start using the tremolo bar, you know, you’ll have the older generation coming out going, ‘Hank Marvin.’”

With the Revstar, that pressure is gone, says Buck, and he’s free to explore his own sound without being compared to the guitar greats.

“There’s no baggage attached with that,” he says. “I can kind of feel like I’m stepping out of their shadows just by virtue of picking up a different guitar.”

The post “There’s so much baggage that comes with a Strat”: Why Chris Buck is ditched his Fender for a Yamaha Revstar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.