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November 2025

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85 articles

November 10
- “There is a warmth to this pedal that is genuinely satisfying to play through”: Fender Hammertone Breakup Drive review
- “This is the bass I’ve wanted to make for years”: Sterling by Music Man releases signature bass with two dummy knobs that do absolutely nothing for MxPx bassist Mike Herrera
- "If you’re after the building blocks of ’60s-style rock and roll, R&B and funk/soul, these will certainly get you a long way towards them.": Ernie Ball Pino Palladino Smoothies flatwound bass strings review
- “This poor guy had to sell his guitar because of medical bills. He was so incredibly excited that it was gonna get played”: Lzzy Hale on swapping Les Pauls for Explorers – and finding her first on Craigslist
- “Jeff Beck would pick up my fretless and play the craziest licks. I was in awe”: Pino Palladino’s adventures with The Who, John Mayer, Eric Clapton and his Music Man fretless bass
- “Every time you put the capo on wrong, you pull the guitar out of tune”: Do you put your capo on ‘incorrectly’? Tommy Emmanuel says this is the correct way to do it - and it could save your tuning
- “These guitars are not just for blues lawyers – you can rock with one of these”: Joe Bonamassa on the vintage Gibson that makes a great power chord guitar
- “I was like, ‘Joni, that’s gonna be terrible, we need an amp.’ She was like, ‘Would you just try it?’” Robben Ford on Joni Mitchell’s fuzz pedal experiments that shaped one of her most adventurous tracks
- “After the show, they handed me what is to this day one of my most prized possessions”: Jim Carrey remembers Chris Cornell and Soundgarden’s generous guitar gift as he inducts them into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
- “When I was 15, I was hustling it out in the juke joint clubs – and then along came Mr. Buddy Guy…” From teenage prodigy to modern guitar royalty, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is ushering in a new era for blues guitar
November 9
- “Boldly established Ibanez as a new contender in the highly competitive Superstrat market”: How Ibanez’s era-defining RG550 transformed high-performance guitar
- “I wanted to write a Montrose album, and he wanted to write an album more like the Eagles – and I hate the Eagles”: Stevie Salas on being asked to join David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar’s bands – and why he turned them down
- “He used seashells as a pick, that's where he gets all that squank from”: Brilliant players of all persuasions have earned their stripes in Lynyrd Skynyrd's three-guitar army. Rickey Medlocke takes us through all of them, and what made them each special
- “We weren’t allowed to talk about it at Guitar Summit, but the signature everyone was asking about is now here”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including the crown jewel of PRS’ 40th Anniversary year
November 8
- “It’s less significant than your guitar strap being an inch higher or lower”: John Mayer on why fretboard radius doesn’t actually make that much of a difference
- “It's more than an effect. It's an instrument in itself”: Made famous by David Gilmour, and employed by Rory Gallagher and the Beatles, the Binson Echorec is a secret-recipe tool that helped define rock guitar tone
- “All I wanted was be a punk rocker and play the bass guitar. I went completely in the other direction from jazz, and now I'm trying to catch up”: When Flea met Charlie Haden – and had much more in common than you might think
- “A shoo-in for completely natural drive sounds”: Nobels ODR-1X review
- “People that didn’t understand the situation wanted me to get out of the way and hear more of Joni”: Brandi Carlile was instrumental in bringing Joni Mitchell back on stage – but faced a lot of criticism for her efforts
November 7
- Yungblud, Dream Theater, Wet Leg, Turnstile among guitar’s heavy hitters at the 2026 Grammy nominations
- “I’ve had many people hand me their guitars, and I’m like, ‘No, thank you’”: Rick Beato was offered the chance to play guitars from Peter Frampton, Larry Carlton and more – here’s why he turned them down
- “I’ve seen people cover the tune, and one thing most get wrong about it is they’re not intentional about the sections in the way they should be”: Cory Wong on how to create a bigger, wider sound by layering baritone guitar parts
- “My vision closed up. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I started sweating profusely, but I was freezing”: Wolfgang Van Halen on the panic attack he suffered on the way to his Metallica support – and how it inspired his new album
- Every year, Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang write and record an album in a day. For 2025, they did it in an open Guitar Center – and used any gear they wanted
- “I was going everywhere – on the toilet, the bath, the taxi, and walking down the street – going, ‘What do I hear coming in there after those chords?’” How Eric Bell wrote one of Thin Lizzy’s most iconic guitar solos
- “The longer it goes, the better the guitar is going to sound”: Jason Isbell has shared his bizarre method for breaking in new acoustics – and you’ll never guess what it is
- “You never know what you're gonna get when you go to a Billy Strings concert”: Billy Strings shreds Bark at the Moon dressed as a werewolf – and nails Jake E. Lee and Ozzy Osbourne’s parts
- “It’s so hard when you come in to bands like Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers where the fans actually care who the bass player is”: How Oteil Burbridge set about replacing Phil Lesh to become Dead & Company’s new singing bass hero
- “If I could ever even get close to the feel or touch of that performance, I could die a happy man”: He’s inspired by Buddy Guy, played EVH in a Van Halen tribute band and made his name in GA-20 – say hello to Pat Faherty's new power trio
- Get the most from your tube amp with the Orange Valve Tester MKII
- “Son House rolled his eyes back and tossed his head – he seemed to go into a trance, snapping and slamming the strings”: Rory Block left home as a teenager then met and impressed her blues heroes
November 6
- “It's a testament to just how good beginners have it these days that I can’t find all that much to fault”: Cort G200SE review
- “The only way forward in this industry”: Ernie Ball fights battery waste with new rechargeable AA and 9V batteries that are tailored for effects pedals and active guitars
- “That’s all I had for weeks… People started banging on the wall – ‘Don’t play that anymore!’” Tom Petty wanted to turn a catchy riff into a much-needed hit. He didn't stop playing it until he did
- Explore open G tuning: a fresh perspective that reshapes your fretboard and inspired timeless blues and Americana songs
- “Maybe I’m playing into the hate I get from how cold the hyper-modern stuff can be – but I will do a 180 at some point and make people cry”: Guitar heroes are hailing him as shred’s next big thing – but Spiro is already planning a blues left-turn
- “Let me see you lay down a groove like Poundcake. That’s harder than getting up there and soloing”: The lead single from Van Halen’s 1991 album with Sammy Hagar combines a thunderous bassline with a revved-up power drill
- “Everyone was into rap and R&B. They would ask me, ‘Do you really like that old music?’” From humble beginnings to a cameo in Michael B. Jordan's Sinners – Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram is bridging the generational gap in blues
- “I wanted to learn a Nirvana song. The teacher was like, ‘Kurt Cobain is one of the worst guitarists in the world’”: Sub Pop-backed alt-rockers SPRINTS on guitar trolls, setting amps on fire – and the tonal benefits of olive oil
- “A level of authenticity you've never imagined”: IK Multimedia takes on Fender and Boss with the TONEX Plug – its first-ever headphone amp
- “There’s a synergy between you and a great instrument. That could be a $300 Squier or a $5,000 Gibson. It doesn’t matter”: Chris Buck on vintage “dogs”, signature model intrigue, and how rock royalty helped his regal blues-rock tap into America
November 5
- “I found this in a store and it sounded amazing. It cost about $500 less than a Fender would”: Geese are the latest indie-rock phenomenon – and their lead guitarist is repping this Billy Corgan-approved guitar brand
- “Bernie was playing right out of Randy’s pedalboard and amp. He said Randy’s pedalboard was doing changes on its own”: Bernie Tormé only played seven gigs with Ozzy Osbourne – but he saved the Black Sabbath frontman’s career
- “It was not only an honour but deeply moving”: Bernie Marsden’s $1million ‘The Beast’ Les Paul was just played on stage by Slash’s favorite current British blues rock guitar hero
- “He screams across from the bar, ‘What you doing, boy! Put that guitar down. Nobody knows my tuning!’” Journey’s Neal Schon on that one time he tried Albert King’s mythical Gibson Flying V
- “Fender needed something to bring them into more modern times”: How Jim Root’s radical signature Telecaster updated a Fender mainstay for the 21st century
- I’ve been playing live shows for 20 years – these are my road-tested Christmas gift recommendations for gigging guitar players
- “This isn’t just about sound, it’s about community, creativity, and giving back to the music that made us”: Marshall launches initiative to support grassroots music venues in the UK – which are facing a fight for survival
- “No, that doesn’t sound right”: Robert Trujillo gatecrashes group Enter Sandman lesson at Guitar Center
- “The night before we left for the tour, I knew that something bad was going to happen”: Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd reveals his fears surrounding Chris Cornell’s final tour – and names the producer of the band’s new album
- “It's really hard when you're going through that. I like to be able to give something back”: Tony Iommi is raffling off one of his Gibson SGs to support the hospital that treated his cancer
- “It was something we’d never seen the likes of”: The unexpected discovery in John Mayer’s iconic ’64 Fender Strat that helped shape the sound of the Silver Sky
- “I would like people to know that I was the true inventor of ska and reggae”: Ernest Ranglin on working with Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, James Bond – and how he influenced “almost every aspect of Jamaican music”
- “I didn’t have the brainpower to focus – I was just like, ‘I need to make sure Frankenstein is safe’”: Anxiety, wildfires, slap guitar: How Wolfgang Van Halen made the monster guitar album of 2025
- “There’s plenty of scope to craft some unique ambient textures”: Crazy Tube Circuits Mirage review
November 4
- “At this time I have to prioritize my health”: Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers drops out of this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony – after previously confirming reunion plans
- “A lot of the issues were to do with management and stuff that pitted me and Axl against each other”: Slash on his return to Guns N’ Roses, changing up the Sweet Child O’ Mine solo, and what needs to happen for a new GNR album
- “He spoke to my parents, and we were off to London the next day to talk about a record deal. I had no idea who he was”: When Joanne Shaw Taylor was discovered at 15 by an ’80s music legend – and the biggest piece of advice he gave her
- “I was saying, ‘It’s going to explode.’ I was terrified the place was going to burn down”: When Eddie Van Halen crash-tested one of EVH’s most iconic guitar amps – and risked 5150 Studios in the process
- “G&L is no longer – and we still have a lot of unanswered questions”: Former G&L employee speaks out following quiet closure of company – as Fender purchases the 'Leo Fender' trademark
- “Morello was like, ‘Hey, you can't do that. I think Metallica was gonna do that…’” Halestorm reveal the song they were originally set to play at Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s final show
- “Do you want to recycle or try something new? I never chased popular opinion as much as I chased my inner feelings”: How surviving cancer inspired Ana Popovic to take blues guitar to the dancefloor
- “I never thought I’d get hired by a pop band. Opening for Coldplay with Willow Smith was never a career goal”: Few bassists can match the technical ability of Mohini Dey, thanks to her work with Steve Vai, Willow Smith and just about everyone else
- “I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. I never got a bunch of my gear returned. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath – they just don’t get spoken to again!” Ask Jo Burt about Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and The Troggs – just not Black Sabbath
November 3
- "Some might say this is far from a valid Oasis signature guitar, having only come into play earlier this year": Gibson Noel Gallagher Les Paul Standard review
- “On a guitar, it's built so weird with that one string in the wrong position, and so everybody plays the same crap all the time”: Phish's Trey Anastasio thinks all guitar music sounds the same – so he radically switched up his songwriting process
- “Absolutely fearless”: Teenager shredding Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name at her valedictory goes viral
- “A treasure trove of undiscovered harmonies”: She’s played with Bruno Mars and Jay-Z – now Ella Feingold’s signature string set brings her wild inverted tuning to the masses
- “Changing from active to passive was huge – I’d forget to change the batteries and have a meltdown pre-gig when my EMGs died”: Conjurer just dropped a modern sludge-metal classic – and they made it using custom guitars with satanic scale lengths
- Musician’s Friend has just destroyed Black Friday before it’s even begun with up to 50% off guitars from Gretsch, PRS, Fender & more in their unmissable Holiday Sale
- “I’d say, ‘How is your latest record, Jeff?’ And he’d go, ‘Oh, it's a lot of rubbish’”: Ritchie Blackmore on Jeff Beck’s imposter syndrome
- “In all the years I’ve been playing since I was a child, I don’t remember ever adjusting a tone knob. I’m not going to miss it”: Why Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe believes that tone knobs on guitars are overrated
- “Let’s hop to it”: James Hetfield wins Halloween by donning inflatable kangaroo costume to rip through a thrash classic – and he doesn’t miss a beat
- “The quality of guitars didn’t plummet overnight – some might argue that it remained high for at least a decade”: Fender CBS guitars get a bad rep – but what actually changed?
- “He had Double Trouble on a couple of his records. He had a relationship with Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was a touring machine who did it the hard way”: Eric Gales on his all-star blues tribute to his brother, the man who started him on guitar
November 2
- “I would run across the stage and ‘break’ the bass over my head while our sound guy played samples of trees cracking”: Described as the 4-string equivalent of painting with a sledgehammer, Van Halen’s Ultra Bass was not your typical bass solo
- “From 1991 to 2016, I did no lead playing at all. By the time I started playing again for my YouTube channel, I’d forgotten everything I knew”: Why Rick Beato stopped playing solos – and why it was good for his playing
- “I had a really bad detox. I fell down a flight of stairs. I screwed up my shoulder and neck and couldn’t play guitar for a while. I thought God had taken it all away”: How Ace Frehley came back from the brink with his first solo album in 20 years
- “Instant, precise control right under your foot”: This innovation might have completely changed the way you dial in effects pedals forever
November 1
- “That’s the last barrier we have to tear down”: The one thing stopping headless guitars being embraced by traditional players, according to Ola Strandberg
- This Japanese guitar maker is fashioning phone cases that make your mobile look like vintage instruments – and the internet is going crazy for them
- “I hate new basses. I think they are terrible. I don’t want to have one in my hands”: How Sting’s 1953 P-Bass set the tone for this Police classic
- “A first-class build that’s impossible to fault… it would be criminal if this didn’t hit a stage”: Patrick James Eggle Oz-t Cabronita Thinline review
- “Who’d have thought the Oasis reunion would be such an event for signature guitars?” All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including the Hummingbird’s evil twin
- “Me and Chino rowed a lot when we were working on it. It was a really abrasive process”: Deftones' White Pony was one of the first metal masterpieces of the new millennium. Its creation was anything but smooth sailing