Player archive

February 2024

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16 articles

February 29
- “I went to high school with Tom Morello, and we had a band. When I joined, I was the best person in it, but when Tom went to college, he started practicing. When he came back, he was too good for me!”: Tool's Adam Jones on Silverbursts and “evil” tones
February 28
- “I’ve seen a lot of guitars with multiple necks – often the player uses one or two necks at a time. I use all three on this guitar while also playing percussion”: How acoustic wizard Luca Stricagnoli wrangles his signature triple-neck beast
February 26
- “The Black Hole Sun arpeggios were unusual for me – like the right side of a piano, or fairies dancing on a pin... I thought, ‘This is not me’”: Kim Thayil on how Soundgarden persevered through personal and musical frustrations to create Superunknown
February 23
- “Listen to AC/DC and tell me Malcolm Young didn’t drive that band. Same with the Sex Pistols and Steve Jones. Those guys are tone merchants. That’s the club I wanted to be in”: Billy Morrison on kicking heroin, and becoming Steve Stevens' six-string foil
February 20
- “I got into the Who when I was playing my Mom’s Martin. I thought it looked cool to do the windmill, but when my Mom saw how badly I scratched her guitar she said, ‘No more pick for you’”: Carolyn Wonderland on Tele Thinlines and Houston guitar heroes
February 16
- “My version of 'Fire' attracted some attention. I tried to imagine how Muddy Waters would have played it… Hell, I’m not going to compete with Jimi Hendrix!” Pete Anderson charts his career in five songs
February 14
- “Some people operate the guitar. Joe Pass really played it”: The genius of Joe Pass, one of the 20th century's greatest jazz guitarists
February 13
- “I learned economy from artists like Albert King, for whom one note could tell a whole story”: At 78, guitar legend Robin Trower isn't done evolving, but he always keeps the blues in sight
- “I got John Lennon’s Epiphone Casino and played through his amp, Paul got on the drums. It was like we’d been playing together forever”: Steve Miller on jamming with the Beatles, his pre-show warmups, and 50 years of the Joker
February 12
- “He said, ‘I want to make a little-amp record.’ Apparently on Layla, Eric Clapton and Duane Allman were playing through Champs and facing each other, and that’s what we did”: Charlie Starr on how Blackberry Smoke evolved by slimming down in the studio
February 11
- "Wondrous… unique… exquisite": The seven-string guitars and smooth "lap-piano" style of forgotten jazz and swing guitarist George Van Eps
February 9
- “I spent five eight-hour days working on that solo until I knew I had it”: Steve Lynch on how Autograph conquered the airwaves with debut single Turn Up The Radio
February 3
- “I used to fall asleep with it on my chest — it’s literally a one-of-a-kind, unreplaceable keepsake": Randy Bachman on the trauma of having his prized 1957 Gretsch 6120 stolen and the remarkable story of how he was reunited with it
February 2
- "Do you know what happened to my lost bass, the one that got pinched?" How Paul McCartney's simple 2019 query over coffee in a studio led to a forensic hunt for the iconic Höfner 500/1 violin bass
- "It’s always going to be random — it’s never going to sound the same. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s not so great": Jazz guitarist Oz Noy on the spontaneity and experimentation of looping and "dancing on the pedals"
- "Jimmy Herring peeked behind my amp and asked, 'What speakers are you using?'": Why the old hands are asking Daniel Donato for gear advice