“Crazy things happen when we play this song. Someone was crowdsurfing and threw out their prosthetic leg for me to sign”: How Drowning Pool made Bodies

“The riff itself will ‘decide’ whether it needs to be played with a single coil pickup, a humbucker or something else entirely”: Charlie Starr on why choosing the right guitar for the song makes all the difference

“Interestingly, the cheaper L-00 and L-0 models generally have a bolder, more focused tone than fancier similar models”: In praise of Gibson's L-00 – the small-bodied acoustic that could

“A musician serves an intention, a continuum, a storytelling… You need to be listening carefully to what you play”: The quintessentially French, impossibility brilliant Pierre Bensusan on the freedom of DADGAD and unpredictable magic of performance

“Truly an amp improver – you’d instantly miss it if you turned it off”: ThorpyFX Kudu review

“Bruce told me he wanted to sound more like Jeff Beck, so he ended up buying this Gibson. It turns out he’d bought an EB-6!” How Jimmy Fallon’s bassist bonded with Bruce Springsteen over their shared love of 6-string bass

“The most common mistake is thinking it’s an out-of-tune guitar”: What people get wrong about microtonal music

5 ways to make the C chord much more interesting

“It’s kinda like when Santa leaves the workshop and the elves get to play”: Weezer’s Brian Bell reveals his Mason Marangella-built pedalboard

“We have long been of the opinion that it is one of the most underrated electric guitars on the market”: The best guitar gear launched this week, ft. Phil Collen’s signature relic’d Jackson and your ’board’s final Boss?

“Robert Fripp asked me to get together with some guys he knew. In the studio were Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford and Robert. My jaw dropped”: Tony Levin’s lessons from Steve Vai, Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel

“We were sitting backstage in the Voodoo Lounge, and Mick and I started talking. He said, casually, I'll gladly do some tracks for you”: How Mick Jagger very nearly ended up on a Joe Satriani record – before Satch deleted his performance

“A game-changer? In some ways, absolutely”: Steadfast Stopbar review

“I was broke. I only had $200 and we booked a gig. There was this guitar at a pawn shop that had been there for years...” How George Thorogood stumbled across the Gibson that became his go-to guitar – a week before his first gig with the Destroyers

“The day I was meant to leave, I was lying in my bed, paralyzed. I was like, ‘If I’ve got to keep doing these tours, I’m going to end up dead’”: Industrial metal pioneer Justin Broadrick on his punk salvation, Phoebe Bridgers collabs and burying Godflesh

“I’m going to go home broke because I shipped everything over here... but at least I’ll have my sound”: Talking gear, tone and technique with the great Eric Johnson – and the “stigma” around modifying vintage Strats

“Neil Young was supposed to play the solo, but he couldn’t make it, so I did it myself”: The cult up-and-coming ’90s guitarist who ended up pitching in for Neil Young at the last minute

“I'm on tour. I may have a brain tumor. I didn't tell nobody. Meanwhile, one ear is slowly turning all the way off”: Ben Kenney on touring with a brain tumor in Incubus – and why he will never hear stereo guitars again

“The people who go with Yamaha don’t want the old-style. There’s a level of freedom if you’re a brand that doesn’t have that baggage”: Matteo Mancuso on the making of his signature Yamaha Revstar

“There were shows where we literally weren’t allowed to stay inside the venue. We’d have to wait in the car until the support act had finished”: Teenage bassist Aria Becker on the strange realities of life in an underage band

Jackson and Phil Collen launch a Mexican-made take on his wild Super Strat

“Looks like the surface of some far-away planet”: Steelyjam Delta Junior

“As I sling Jack’s own Triplecaster over my shoulder, the gravity of the situation hits me. I’m about to play through his rig at full blast in front of his entire touring crew”: I played Jack White’s guitar rig – here’s what I learned

“I cut a hole in it and used a ruler as a neck and rubber bands as strings. I’d imitate Jimi Hendrix”: Micki Free on the time he made a guitar out of a detergent box and the advice Billy Gibbons gave him

Josh Homme has had his fill of cringe-worth party players

“I got back into classic jazz… exploring all those wonderful guitarists – Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green”: Deirdre Cartwright on why she’s still flying the flag for jazz standards

Fender CEO says he has heard complaints about quality control – and is taking steps to address it

“A cornerstone of American music history”: Lonnie Mack’s Flying V is heading to auction

16-year-old Thai guitarist crowned winner of America's Got Talent after performing with Linkin Park and The Warning

“An essential toolbox”: Boss debuts the EX-4 Effects Expander, a compact multi-FX that could be the ultimate pedalboard space saver

Rig breakdown: build your own version of Jack White's tricked-out stage setup

"It is expensive, but it may be the only guitar plugin you ever need": Line 6 Helix Stadium Native review

“I just got sick of having this perfect guitar sound”: Why Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis moved away from high-end amps in favor of the humble gear he used back in the ’80s

If you learn one thing from Johnny Marr, it should be this

16-year-old guitarist stuns in America’s Got Talent final by turning the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army into a metal anthem: “The world is going crazy because there is nothing like you right now. You are unique”

“I took a blowtorch to it. I nearly killed myself”: Johnny Marr tried to make his first guitar look like Rory Gallagher’s – and it made him pass out

“I never imagined I’d be standing onstage playing Detroit Rock City with Kiss”: Tommy Thayer is taking a funky next step with Shogun Mojo – but he still loves the day job

Dead Kennedys icon East Bay Ray reveals Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis: “He plans to continue performing and touring for as long as his health allows”

Fender says it’s solved single-coil hum issues with a new breakthrough – and it could change the playing experience forever

“I thought, ‘This guy has a really good voice. He sounds really similar to Chris Martin’”: Busker unknowingly plays Coldplay classic with the band’s frontman

Paul McCartney – a life in guitars: from the Ed Sullivan Epiphone to his Blackbird acoustic, and one of the world’s rarest Gibsons

Carvin “King of Strings” Jones – once touted by Eric Clapton as “the next up-and-coming blues player” – dies at 60

Epiphone confirms Eric Clapton signature ES-335 – and guitarists can play it at the Crossroads Guitar Festival

“I thought it was nice to give something to the SE. When I was growing up, the more accessible guitar got punished”: John Mayer makes the black pickguard Silver Sky a reality in the most unexpected place – a Land Rover Defender collaboration

In 1968, Eric Clapton gave George Harrison a Les Paul named Lucy – but when was it made? Test your Beatles guitar knowledge with our quiz

I played my beloved Strat when I opened for Weezer. It got me discovered by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. Then I gave it away to a prison

“I was nervous that Jerry would go, ‘Are you ripping off my sound?’ I fixed that problem by having him play it!” Tim Montana grew up with no electricity and running water. Now he’s collaborating with Jerry Cantrell, Slash and Billy Gibbons

“This amp gave us a chance to show people another side of Fender that has always been there, even if it hasn’t been front and center”: How Fender resurrected its under-the-radar classic, the ’62 Deluxe

“I can’t help but spend time admiring the guitar every time I pick it up.” Epiphone Futura ES-335 review

Tesla driver faces charges after allegedly playing guitar while driving