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April 2025

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35 articles

April 12
- “We’re Liverpool boys, and they say Liverpool is the capital of Ireland.” Paul McCartney explains how the Beatles introduced harmonized guitar leads to rock and roll with one remarkable song
April 11
- “We’d heard Jimi Hendrix, we'd heard the Who, but now we finally got to see these guys. And watching Jimi Hendrix burn his guitar….” Grace Slick on Hendrix at Monterey, Jefferson Airplane and the Spanish origins of “White Rabbit”
- "When they left town, I went to the airport and got to meet Ritchie, and he thanked me for covering for him." Christopher Cross recalls filling in for a sick Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple's first-ever show in the U.S.
- “I’m still playing but I’m covered in blood. Billy’s looking at me like, ‘Yeah! That’s punk rock!'” Steve Stevens on his all-time worst gig with Billy Idol — and the visit to Jimi Hendrix's grave that never happened
April 10
- "He goes to England and all of a sudden he's on the floor humping his guitar!” Gene Simmons tells how he, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley followed Jimi Hendrix's lead and gave Kiss some British swagger
- “I was home with the family and I got a phone call saying, 'You've won a Grammy.' We were like, 'You've got to be kidding?'” Martin Barre recalls Jethro Tull’s famous Grammy triumph over Metallica 36 years on
- “F****d me up completely. I couldn’t make head or tail of it.” Eric Clapton on the one guitarist who blew him away onstage
- Guitar Center's Guitar-A-Thon is back, and it includes a colossal $600 off a Gibson Les Paul, $180 off a Fender Strat, and a slew of new exclusive models
April 9
- "The only thing missing is the noise from the tape loop." We review the Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo, a convincing take on a very special vintage tube Echoplex
- “We were underdogs that still had to prove ourselves.” Aerosmith feared their label would drop them if 'Toys in the Attic' wasn’t a success. Fifty years on, Joe Perry discusses the riffs that saved them from oblivion
- “My worst case of buyer’s remorse was probably an impulse-buy banjo." Yvette Young shares her worst purchase stories and delivers her top tips for regret-free guitar shopping
- “I’d always worshipped Steve, and whenever he made a move, I would be right on it.” How a 20-year-old hot-shot guitarist convinced Eric Clapton to switch from Les Pauls to Fender Strats
- “I avoided it like the plague, but you have to understand it and feel it to be a complete player.” Martin Barre neglected one important aspect of guitar playing for years until another famous guitarist helped him see the light
April 8
- “That was the first song I ever attempted to play, but I heard congas and drums that exploded like fire.” How the Kinks inspired Al Di Meola to write a fusion classic
- "We tried every guitar for weeks, and nothing would fit. And then, one day, we pulled this out." Mike Campbell on his "Red Dog" Telecaster, the guitar behind Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' "Refugee" and the focus of two new Fender tribute models
- A gigantic $360 off Positive Grid's celebrated BIAS amp sim software may have just put the nail in the coffin of my beloved valve combo
April 7
- “I feel like a fraud. Because people don't know — but they're gonna find out one day.” Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner opens up about struggling to play guitar since his emergency heart surgery
- “Write for five minutes a day. I mean, who can’t manage that?” Mike Stern's top five guitar tips include one simple fix to help you develop your personal guitar style
- "It's one of the coolest guitars that I own. And look — it’s fretless!" Dweezil Zappa revels in the quirks and sonic benefits of his one-of-a-kind Gibson "Roxy" SG
April 6
- “The looping show is high anxiety for me. The only time I get to relax is when I’m soloing.” Johnny A. walks us through his song-based live looping strategy as he demonstrates his guitar rig
April 5
- "Bird just grinned. He’d never heard a guitar played like that!" George Freeman, onetime guitarist for Charlie Parker, has died at age 97. Read our 2024 interview with the jazz icon
- "It’s as if all of Jeff Beck’s genius is right here on one album. There’s a taste of everything.” Joe Perry riffs on Beck, the Yardbirds and "The 10 Records That Changed My Life"
April 4
- "It was in the early days of wireless guitars. I went to the bathroom but didn't have time to take my guitar off, and the sound was coming back through the amp." Squeeze guitarist Glenn Tilbrook reveals his best and worst gigs of all time
- Orianthi performs at Guitar Player Presents in Oakland, California — Win Tickets
- "Ritchie has actually been told by his cardiologist not to get in a plane." Ritchie Blackmore suffered a heart attack a year and a half year ago and has been warned not to travel by air
- “Yes, I can do it all.” Shaquille O’Neal stuns fans by playing a Three Days Grace song on an acoustic guitar. Or is it a ukulele?
April 3
- “I did the dumbest thing and pointed it at the audience. When I turned around, flames were shooting into the crowd.” Kane Roberts on the time he nearly set Alice Cooper's audience on fire with his flame-throwing machine-gun guitar
- "I heard a livelier overall sound, with a more multidimensional voice that enhances a chewy texture to the harmonics." We asked an avowed string snob to try Cleartone Treated Strings on his guitars. Here's what he told us
April 2
- “I thought, Robert Fripp’s a good guitarist. Maybe we could do something.” Andy Summers isn’t a fan of King Crimson, but his collaboration with Fripp came along at just the right time
- "I don’t like collector's items. I said, ‘Give me the blue one.’" Chrissie Hynde reveals the origins of the 1965 Fender Telecaster she's played since the dawn of the 1980s
- "I wrote it in five minutes the night before.” How a candid moment caught on camera became the final Beatles song the band recorded together
April 1
- “A good example of how, as artists, you have to blindly move forward with crazy ideas”: The story of Joe Satriani’s showstopping Crystal Planet Ibanez JS prototype – which has just sold for $10,000
- “I felt myself starting to cry.” Eric Clapton’s 'MTV Unplugged' Martin acoustic returns in two guises. But Slowhand’s affinity for the guitar brand began long before that seminal live performance
- "Jaco thought he was gonna die that day in the control room of CBS! Tony was furious." John McLaughlin on Jaco Pastorius, Tony Williams, and the short and tumultuous reign of the Trio of Doom
- “It’s all been building up to 8 p.m. when the lights go down and the crowd roars.” Tommy Emmanuel shares his gig-day guitar routine, from sun-up to show time