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July 2024

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49 articles

July 31
- “He goes, ‘I don't even understand how you're playing that. I could never play that’”: Dweezil Zappa on the time he taught Eddie Van Halen how to play one of his dad’s most difficult riffs
- “I remember saying to Billy that it can't just be notes – we need something that’s got a sonic blast”: Why Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens used toy ray guns to create Rebel Yell’s “space-age gunfight” guitar solo
July 30
- “I dare the audience to stay seated during our songs”: Claudette King to celebrate B.B. King’s 100th birthday with funk-infused 2025 tour
- “A much-anticipated update with the latest sound design language and features, and countless chain combinations”: Mooer unveils its latest feature-packed and affordable amp modeler and multi-effects unit, the GE200 Pro
- “I started doing some odd jobs, running a bulldozer, cutting hay for people...”: Steve Morse almost quit music, twice – Kansas, and then Lynyrd Skynyrd, brought him back
July 29
- “No disrespect to Marshalls, but they have one sound, and that's about it. They're either really loud, or really quiet. But I found that each Fender amp has its own character”: Why Noel Gallagher overhauled his Oasis rig at the peak of the band's success
July 26
- “Anyone who’s seen him perform his father’s music will testify that not only does Dweezil Zappa do it justice, his improvisational sections are as thrilling as the compositions are deep”: Win tickets to see Dweezil Zappa in San Francisco
July 25
- “A bombshell guitar that can front any band”: Martin and Reverb unite for an exclusive non-cutaway Grand Performance acoustic
- “I was inspired by one of my favorite players, Mr. Paul Gilbert”: Matteo Mancuso pays homage to one of his heroes with new track, Paul Position
- “A vintage-sounding, modern-featured roaring head inspired by the legendary 1967/1968 Plexi Super Lead 100”: Joe Satriani’s custom Eddie Van Halen-flavored 3rd Power amp is now available as a plugin – with real amps on the way
July 24
- “All these pieces of wood gradually become in harmony with each other over years of playing”: David Gilmour explains his preference for vintage guitars, and demos his 1945 Martin D-18
- “Thank you for rescuing me from oblivion and giving me the courage and enthusiasm to express myself without fear or limit”: Tributes pour in for “champion of the blues” John Mayall
- “He gave us ninety years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire, and entertain”: British blues pioneer John Mayall dies at 90
July 23
- “His playing was never self-indulgent, and his soloing was propulsive”: Moby Grape co-founder and guitarist Jerry Miller dies at 81
- “This SG Junior is entirely my own, and it already looks iconic”: Epiphone and Yungblud team up for a rare signature SG Junior
- “Spark 2 is like taking Madison Square Garden wherever you go”: Positive Grid announces the full details of its Spark 2 modeler – with AI tone hunting, DSP modeling, and a looper set to feature
- “It was uncomfortable, but if we were going to play those songs, then I had to play them”: Dickey Betts initially “hated” having to play Duane Allman's slide parts
July 22
- “When you would bend the strings across the fingerboard, the pickups would make this kind of rushing sound because the polepieces went north-south, north-south, north-south”: Brian May on the trials and tribulations of building the Red Special
July 18
- “Effortlessly transition between glassy clean tones and crunchy overdrives”: Blackstar keeps it simple with the tube-powered, American-voiced, and vintage-inspired TV-10A combo amp
- “This album has given me a golden opportunity to create chordal movements and structures that I thought were a bit different”: Steve Howe says writing on keyboards let him get experimental on his new solo album, Guitarscape
- “Elevate your playing and unlock new musical possibilities with Spark 2's all-new Groove Looper”: Positive Grid’s Spark 2 will have a looper feature – fixing a flaw of the hugely successful first-gen modeler
July 17
- “I was getting more into atmospherics and noises; I wanted to get into open, wide arrangements with fewer chord changes”: Johnny Marr’s The The-era '62 American Vintage Strat reissue to be auctioned off
- “It won the audition for a whole pile of songs”: Mark Knopfler teams up with music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins to give away a signed – and extremely rare – Boswell acoustic
- “There's a lot of chromatic stuff, and slides in a very tight space, within three or four frets”: Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride reveals the Ritchie Blackmore lick that's given him the most trouble
July 16
- “Rory was one of the first to put Irish rock on the international stage; it’s important that it's kept in Ireland”: The Irish government is considering what it can do to keep Rory Gallagher’s Strat in the country
- “Addictive playability, versatile tone, and distinctive looks in a quality package”: PRS launches head-turning, sandblasted SE Swamp Ash CE 24
- “In light of the total amount of debt, Fernandes plans to file for bankruptcy proceedings as soon as possible”: Fernandes Guitars, Japanese brand loved by Kirk Hammett and The Edge, files for bankruptcy
July 12
- “I love the clone Strats and Teles that Tokai made illegally in the ’80s. I asked Nile Rodgers how he got the sound on David Bowie’s China Girl, and he pulled out a Tokai Strat”: INXS's Tim Farriss on tonal touchstones, and that reality TV show
July 11
- “The guitar is a symbol of what he represents for us; we must do it for him and our heritage”: A fundraising campaign has been launched to buy Rory Gallagher’s Stratocaster and keep it in Ireland
- “I need the numbers for getting that perfect volume setting for whatever song we're doing”: Joe Satriani on the key mod he’s made to his Best Of All Worlds EVH guitars
- "I kept on bidding with excitement and nervousness; this is John Lennon's... I must be mad!”: John Lennon’s first Vox amp has apparently been rediscovered after 60 years
July 10
- “It burned all through the night and there it was, gone”: Watch Deep Purple give a very literal performance of Smoke on the Water atop a burning Lake Geneva
- “Underneath all these left-field things was a really tasty blues guitar player”: Slash says Eddie Van Halen was a blues player at heart – and that's what made him so good
- “This ruling reinforces our belief in fair competition within the guitar industry”: Dean Guitars wins the right to a retrial in its ongoing trademark dispute with Gibson
July 9
- “I don't think he would have swapped it for anything in the world. Truthfully, it was his wife”: Rory Gallagher’s legendary ’61 Stratocaster to be sold at auction
- “A detailed re-imagining of our core silhouettes, incorporating feedback from musicians around the world”: Fender introduces its second generation of Player Series guitars with choice upgrades
- “Increased sonic versatility and new heights of beauty”: Gibson adds the ES to its Supreme series – with Art Deco aesthetics and split coil pickups
- “Les became my godfather, and he taught me my first three chords. I wore the skin off my thumb in a week just playing those chords”: Before he became a reliable rock hitmaker, Steve Miller was a child protégé of Les Paul
July 8
- Luther Dickinson is a royal blues rocker who's led the North Mississippi Allstars for over a quarter century: Win tickets to see him and the Allstars live in Northern California
July 5
- “One day, Eric called and said, ‘Buddy Guy, George Harrison, and I are playing the Roxy tonight. You’re going to come and jam’”: The night Eric Clapton invited Richie Sambora to a dream jam session
- “Human-centric design with the feel and response of a real amp”: Blackstar says it’s fixed the biggest audio interface issue that guitarists face with the new Polar 2
- “I had no illusion there. I knew he would clock it, of course”: Chris Shiflett on trying to convince Joe Bonamassa his Murphy Lab ‘59 Les Paul was genuine – and why it’s great for country music
July 3
- “Tube tone and dynamism distilled into affordable, portable, and analog designs”: Laney says its new Lionheart Foundry solid-state combos can rival tube amps
- “I just found that my old combo amps are so susceptible to dirty power and things coloring your tone”: Chris Shiflett on ditching tube amps for a Quad Cortex onstage, and on his new solo EP
- “To throw away one of the main ingredients for making instruments because the internet says it doesn’t make a difference – I don't buy it”: Paul Reed Smith believes woods do affect tone, but brings a fresh perspective to the table
- “It's more about songwriting when it comes to Mammoth”: Wolfgang Van Halen doesn't want to sound like his dad – but holds one soloing lesson from him to heart
July 2
- “A rock machine with boutique, hand-built craftsmanship... it's exactly what I was hoping it would be”: Dweezil Zappa gets a “microphonic” signature Shabat guitar with some tricks up its sleeve
- “Cut the cables from your rig with 70 feet of wireless freedom and unparalleled signal strength”: Fender enters the wireless system market with the small but feature-packed Telepath
- “Virtually indistinguishable from the original,” at a fraction of the price: Fender uses DSP modeling for a faithful – and affordable – recreation of its ‘59 Bassman amp