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Artists
Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery
Jon Butcher tales his Olympic White ’63 Strat for a rip on “Jam,” a track from his new album, “Nuthin’ but Soul.” The disc is an homage to sounds of Motown, Stax, James Brown, and Sly Stone highlighted by Butcher’s mastery of Hendrix-style psychedelia. It was recorded using a ’63 Princeton, a Vibrolux, and a…
Pop ’N Hiss: Taste
Breakout Blues
The ’60s may have been the most musically significant decade in the history of popular music, but very few countries were represented then or in the years that followed. Fronted…
Mary Osborne
Charlie’s Angel
Jazz guitar pioneer Mary Osborne was the only female guitarist to realize a significant impact on jazz in the 1940s and ’50s – and many aficionados agree that her swinging…
Jim Peterik
Of the Bard, Brian Wilson, Buddy Guy and "Butt-Ugly" RDs
Veteran guitarist/songwriter/vocalist/keyboard player/producer Jim Peterik’s career has taken yet another intriguing turn in its long and ever-active history. The Chicago-area musician first sprang to prominence over three decades ago as…
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Reflecting on Steve Cropper: A Playlist
Steve Cropper was just 20 years old when his band, the Mar-Keys, began backing singers in the studios of Stax Records. They also scored a million-selling #1 hit with the instrumental, “Last Night” the scored a hit in ’62 as Booker T. & the MG’s with “Green Onions,” propelled by Cropper’s razor-sharp Esquire/Harvard licks. He…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Dave Hunter
Season 03 Episode 07 In Episode 3.7 of Buy That Guitar, presented by Vintage Guitar magazine, host Ram Tuli is joined by renowned guitar historian and author, Dave Hunter. Dave is without a doubt the most prolific writer in the field of guitar and amplifier tone. He’s also a musician, and has graced the pages…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest J Mascis
Season 03 Episode 06 In Episode 3.6 of Buy That Guitar, presented by Vintage Guitar magazine, host Ram Tuli is joined by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Known for his “monolithic” riffs, extensive use of fuzz, feedback, and distortion, Mascis ranks #74 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists”. His guitar of choice has always been…
Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton
Alt-Blues Summit
Blues is a language of many dialects, and when regionalisms collide, sparks fly. So it has been since Texas six-stringer Jesse Dayton joined Kansas City’s slide maven Samantha Fish for…
Full-Grown Rocker Comes Full Circle
In 1986, when singer/guitarist Webb Wilder and producer/songwriter R.S. “Bobby” Field pressed up 1,500 copies of It Came From Nashville, they could have just as easily called the debut It…
Johnny Marr
Brit Gets a Git
When pop-music fans in the U.K. talk about guitar heroes, they tend to put more stake in the way a player’s work fits, contextually, into that of his band. To…
Jimmy Olander
From Banjo to B-bender
The double-bender guitar and Jimmy Olander go hand-in-hand. The innovative guitarist of Diamond Rio fame is a converted banjo player who is now mastering a whole new double-bending style that…
Anthony Phillips
Progressive 12-String Master
Ant Phillips was a founding member of Genesis and, along with guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford, created the signature 12-string acoustic sound that marked the band’s classic albums. Phillips left the group…
Tony Levin
Stick Craft
Between the Sting/Peter Gabriel tour, a revitalized King Crimson, and a new album and tour with Stick Men, Tony Levin is busier than ever. Early 2016 saw him using a…
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Check This Action: A Year In Their Life
Recently, I stumbled onto one of those “reaction” videos by a New Zealander named Courtney, who wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen footage of the Beatles or even heard their songs. This shouldn’t be surprising. The video she watches of the Fab Four, playing “All My Loving” on Ed Sullivan in 1964, was created probably…
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Michael Manring
Bass Convergence
Most music fans who learn that the eclectic trio 3Below is all bass players will react with, “You gotta be kiddin’!” However, musicians who appreciate the unusual will stay for a listen, especially given the lineup – Michael Manring, Trey Gunn, and Alonso Arreola. Spearheaded by Alonso on his six-string or a hybrid ascoustic, their…
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David Hamburger
Top-Tier Tutorial
Whoever said, “Those who can’t do, teach” has never heard David Hamburger. Among his two dozen instructional books and videos, Beginning Blues Guitar, awarded Best New Educational Book or Video at NAMM in 1994, boasts more than 100,000 in sales. In addition to supplying music for advertising and TV, the 60-year-old has recorded with Freedy…
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Midge Ure
The Unexpected Retrospective
While guitarist Midge Ure was a member of Visage and was briefly in an early version of Thin Lizzy, he’s best known as the front man of the British power-prog band Ultravox. Ure has enjoyed an active solo career since Ultravox split three decades ago, and the recent three-CD/three-LP Royal Albert Hall 04-10-23 is a…
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Allen Hinds
Flowing
On The Good Fight, guitarist Allen Hinds finds the sweet spot between melodic fusion and good, earthy music for the soul. Joined by a stellar rhythm section, Hinds is a black-belt legato master and slide stylist with an ear for excitement. Strong songs prevail, but his influences go much deeper than your run-of-the-mill jazz guitarist.…
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Steve Hackett
No Limits
Steve Hackett is one of the busiest guitarists around, regularly issuing new studio and live albums. His latest, Live Magic at Trading Boundaries, focuses on his classical/acoustic compositions. Included are solo guitar pieces and group performances featuring music from his time in Genesis during its beloved ’70s “progressive” era. Trading Boundaries is an intimate venue…
Marty Friedman’s Melodic Grandeur
Vintage Strat, new style on “Illumination” A devout Jackson user with a longstanding signature model, Fender Strat that’s also heard on the record. Read our cover feature and a review…
Slash
Vintage "Contraband" and Velvet Revolver
There once was a time when pointy headstocks, locking vibratos, and refrigerator-sized effects racks were the norm. Fast players with flashy gadgets ruled the world – until, that is, an…
In Memoriam: Lasse Wellander
Lasse Wellander, longtime guitarist in ABBA and a renowned studio and solo musician, died April 7. He was 70 and briefly battled cancer. Wellander grew up in Nora, Sweden, and…
Jackie King
From Willie to T-Bone and Others
Jackie King’s pretty much done it all. Born in Texas, the son of a guitar player, his path took him from playing in bars at age 13, to hanging out…
Graham Clise
Bay Area Blaster
Graham Clise is one of the most-heralded underground rock guitarists of the past 15 years. A mashup of Chuck Berry, BOC’s Buck Dharma, and Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, his style…
Fretprints: Steve Khan
Khan-sequential Guitar
Steve Khan is an internationally acclaimed guitarist with a career spanning more than 50 years. Japan’s Jazz Life proclaimed him one of the 22 greatest jazz guitarists and Musico Pro’s…
João Erbetta: Eclectic instrumentalist
Five-guitar run on “Bubbles” João Erbetta’s all-instrumental album, “Los Angeles,” is eclectic and quirky. Here, the guitarist/banjoist/bassist/keyboardist/steel-guitarist plays five guitars made by fellow Brazilians to blend jazz with country for…
Poison Ivy
Psychobilly Queen
Formed by guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach and frontman Lux Interior, the Cramps emerged in the spring of 1976, offering up a unique and infectious sound that blended the early roots…
Neil Giraldo
Road Routine
The hard-driving husband-and-wife rock act that hits the stage as Pat Benatar and Neil “Spyder” Giraldo is responsible for more than a handful of stalwart classic-rock jams. For the past…
Barry Bailey
Guitarist Barry Bailey, co-founder of the Atlanta Rhythm Section and acclaimed studio musician, died March 13 in Madison, Georgia. He was 73 and battled multiple sclerosis for 17 years. Bailey…
Hard-rockin’ blues
By integrating traditional blues with heavier, more flamboyant rock styles, Eric Sardinas has carved a raw, fiery sound, favoring electric and acoustic resonator guitars to deliver the appropriate vibe. Growing…
Andy Fraser
Finally Free
Andy Frasier In the late 1960s, Free emerged as a four-piece blues rock powerhouse – a bridge between Cream and Led Zeppelin. Fronted by the incredible voice of Paul Rodgers…
John Ellis
John Ellis, proprietor of Ellis Guitars, died January 6 in Temple, Texas. He was 75. Ellis was born near Amarillo before his family moved to California when he was a…
The Return of Slash and The Conspirators
4 From the Floor
In the weeks before they gathered to record a new album in the spring of 2021, guitar legend Slash, frontman/songwriter Myles Kennedy, and their cohorts in The Conspirators had to…
Gerry Beaudoin
The Swing of Things
Beaudoin with his late-’60s Gibson L-5 in 1999. One gets the feeling the three members of the New Guitar Summit have a lot of fun. Consisting of veteran guitarists Jay…
Paul Quinn
Relentless Persistence
For Paul Quinn, music begins and ends with the blues. The soft-spoken guitarist began playing by listening to British blues icons and helped make Saxon one of Europe’s biggest heavy-metal…
Wolf Hoffmann
Mean Business
Traditional heavy metal is still a thriving beast thanks to bands like Accept, whose latest studio album, Too Mean to Die, is full of rugged songs with wicked guitars commanded…
Joanna Connor
Still Rising
Joanna Connor’s new album is a killer batch of tunes with a live feel infused by the spirit of Chicago’s Theresa’s Lounge. A slide guitar opus, 4801 South Indiana Avenue…
Larry Carlton
The Return of Mr. 335
Face it. If you’re a guitarist and listened to any music in the past 30 years, you’ve been influenced by Larry Carlton. One of the most recorded players in history,…
Fretprints: Pee Wee Crayton
Tiny Titan of Blues Guitar
Though he is today largely forgotten, blues aficionados recognize Pee Wee Crayton as a legend. “The little man with a big sound” dominated the charts briefly in the years between…
Steve Cropper
Homage to Lowman Pauling
All but forgotten today, with his low-slung guitar, stylish rhythm licks, and tasty leads, Lowman Pauling was one of the great guitar heroes of the ’50s. Guitarist for the R&B…
