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November 2024

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32 articles

November 30
- “We were jamming on the last song, and he's pulling out this damn emery board!” Stevie Ray Vaughan explains the thinking behind his left-handed tremolo and why Albert King was filing his nails during Stevie’s guitar solo
November 28
- “This guy had a vintage Black Beauty Les Paul, a mint early ‘50s Telecaster, and a blonde, refinished Les Paul. He pleaded with me to buy one of the other two.” Martin Barre tells how a bogus guitar became his main axe in Jethro Tull’s early days
November 26
- "They were like two old, sage blues guys talking it over with a bottle of whisky, and playing the music, right there.” How Eric Clapton and Duane Allman's powerful guitar tandem embodied the blues tradition
November 25
- “We wrote new riffs for three days straight and threw the old riffs in the trash. Our process is to support what’s working.” No longer performing, Brad Delson powers Linkin Park’s guitar riffs in the studio. The result? The #1 rock album in the world
November 24
- “I took a bass string, put it on the guitar, and tuned it in unison an octave lower than the A string so I'd still be able to play with all six strings.” Joe Perry reveals his unusual techniques behind writing classic Aerosmith riffs
- “I sat on the side of the bed and just wrote the two verses. I was at the end of one big love affair and the beginning of another." Justin Hayward on the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” and the 12-string he got from Lonnie Donegan
November 23
- "Everyone who listened to them went out and started a band of their own." The new MC5 album took more than 50 years to arrive. Guitarist Wayne Kramer and his bandmates have passed on, but the celebration is just beginning
November 22
- "I took the top E string off. I originally wrote it on a guitar with four strings. I didn’t really know what I was doing’ ” John Rzeznik reveals how his odd alternate tuning resulted in a song that's reached 2 billion streams
- “People had so many crazy ideas about what the song meant. But it was complete B.S." His song about a killer and a haunted lake launched an urban legend. Thirty years later, some fans still think "Possum Kingdom" is true
November 21
- "It came down to saying, ‘Man, you’re playing better than I am. You gotta take the part.’ You gotta be honest with each other, or it’s just going to be crap.” Scott Gorham recalls finding his footing with Thin Lizzy’s 1976 classic “Emerald”
November 20
- “They were chasing success. I had my own vision, and after 'Strangers in the Night,' I split.” Michael Schenker brought UFO global fame. He had other plans for himself
November 18
- “Bobby came in and he went, ‘Da-da-da-da-da-da-da DUH-daaa!’ I said, ‘That’s the only thing you think I should do?’” George Benson tells how one small change turned the song “Breezin’” into an instrumental guitar sensation
- “Brent’s accident changed not only him but Mastodon. I feel like that was the last record we did as a band that was complete.” Guitarist Bill Kelliher says "things were never the same" after Crack the Skye. The reasons are complicated
- “He went through the paperwork, and when he looked at the serial number, the color drained from his face. He just looked ashen.” Vernon Reid reveals how a simple error resulted in his greatest guitar find
November 16
- “Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar, watching those tiny hands finding all these weird jazz chords. She made it look so effortless.” Watch Amy Winehouse stun audiences with her voice and a Stratocaster
November 15
- “People disparage Gibson’s Norlin years, but my '72 SG has a classic tone. It comes down to how you play it.” Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein challenges lazy thinking about Gibson’s most notorious era
- "John Mayall called me up a second time. He said, ‘Don't hang up! I really am interested in having you in the band.' ” Coco Montoya explains how John Mayall turned him from a bartender into his Bluesbreaker guitarslinger
November 14
- “Everyone was hanging their heads, saying, ‘We’ve got to re-do it. Listen to this.’ ” Rich Williams recalls how his guitar picks ruined a day’s worth of playing on the biggest hit Kansas ever had. Even worse — he'd quadruple-tracked his guitar
- "He approached a dreadnought much like he did a Les Paul, attacking leads and muscling the strings to achieve bends and vibrato." These Allman Brothers songs explain why Dickey Betts was a legend on acoustic as well as electric
- “Rehearsal rooms are expensive in Los Angeles. So I decided to buy a boat. It’s way cheaper.” How one Grammy-winning guitarist, three Gibson ES-295s and a tiny ship became a formula for musical success
- "It can get the really dark chewy sounds, the clean bright stuff... It will do everything if you just fiddle with the volume and tone controls." Joe Bonamassa reveals the one guitar he can't do without... and it's not a Les Paul
- “Brad said, ’Your Les Paul? I know where it is.’ He pulled out a guitar magazine with Slash's collection.” Joe Perry reveals the full story behind the Les Paul ’Burst he lost to the Guns N' Roses guitarist
November 12
- “There was a deadly silence for what seemed like ages after the song had finished. And then a thunderous applause engulfed the room.” Ralph McTell scored a hit with his classic “Streets of London.” It only took him 10 years — and three recordings
- "I wrote out a list of things I wasn’t going to do: No Floyd Rose. No three notes per string. It was like, 'Let me see how much I can get away with this.’ ” Zakk Wylde explains his weirdly effective method for creative guitar playing
November 11
- “The minute I figured out some alternate tunings, it was like the sky opened up. I even had two double-necks with capos and alternate tunings”: Rival Sons' Scott Holiday shares tips to help players get out of ruts
- “A lot of guitar players want to go in there and shred. I came up with a minor 9th arpeggio and put it over the cello. I approached it as if I was scoring a film.” As Trans-Siberian Orchestra revs up again, Al Pitrelli reflects on how it all began
November 10
- “He said, ‘Count heartbeats and squeeze the trigger. It’s a kung fu trick.’ ” He was the secret weapon behind L.A.'s classic rock legends. Now they reveal the genius behind their favorite slide guitarist
November 8
- “I had this really nice old Strat I used for a lot of stuff. I loved Jimi Hendrix so much and I really liked the tonality of that guitar.” Chris Stein on Blondie’s hit “Dreaming” and its secret ingredient
- “People always say I’m the Beatle who changed the most.” How playing sitar helped George Harrison become a guitar legend
November 7
- "I decided that I was going to write a song with a lot of chords. Nobody was doing that in rock and roll at the time.” Guitarist Robby Krieger reveals how breaking the rules resulted in the Doors' chart-topping hit
- "Purists say players like me are killing the guitar. But if evolution is bad, then guitar is dead." A master of fingerstyle percussive playing, Marcin might be the best thing to happen to acoustic guitar since Segovia
November 2
- “I said to them, ‘Just play these three chords and follow me!’ And then — boom — it hit me: This is a classic!” It took guitarist Randy Bachman seven years to write "Takin' Care of Business." It finally came together at one nearly disastrous show