“I look at it as a cool tool that can enable me to compose riffs lower than anything else I’ve ever played”: Mike Stringer on how 8-string guitars take him outside his comfort zone in search of creative dissonance
“When you notice one of these signs, it’s probably time to open a fresh set of strings”: When should you change your guitar strings? We asked the world’s biggest string brands to get the definitive answer
“We were all young and naïve. He was just a waste of time. He just sat there with his feet up reading Country Life”: How Iron Maiden forged their debut album with a lazy producer, a dodgy mix and Paul Kossoff’s ’57 Strat
“I knew the guitar was valuable, but this was before Slash blew up, so nobody really wanted Les Pauls. They all wanted Charvels”: Billy Duffy on his greatest guitar deals – and the one he regrets selling to Bob Rock
“You are a rock star, young lady”: How a Thai teenager blew away America’s Got Talent audience covering a ’90s rock classic
“Great to see Larry behind the kit”: U2 release single ‘Street of Dreams’ ahead of first new album in nine years
“I spent hours in the studio on this one song. Pummelled it to death! I probably spent $10,000 trying to get it to work”: Joe Satriani on his biggest waste of money, his most humiliating review, and what he taught Kirk Hammett
“We knew it didn’t need another lyric, so I just went ‘la, la, la…’”: The songwriting theory and modest gear behind Kylie Minogue’s 2001 pop gem
“You can just tell when someone lives and breathes music. There’s just a lot of heart in the way that he plays”: Courtney Barnett pays tribute to special artistry of Chili Pepper collaborator
“He’s not a great keyboard player, he doesn’t write great songs. His engineering and technical abilities are limited too. In fact, he knows very little about an awful lot”: The Edge on Brian Eno and how he influenced his own “limited” guitar style
“One day I was in an elevator with Miles Davis and he said, ‘Hey, do you got a wah wah yet?’ ‘No, I don’t play a wah wah.’ He says, ‘You gotta get a wah wah!’”: Carlos Santana on Miles and McLaughlin, Hendrix and SRV, and his quest for eternal melody
“I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down”: The story behind The Beach Boys’ timeless masterpiece God Only Knows, a Brian Wilson co-creation that had a profound emotional impact on Paul McCartney
“I got a call from my brother. He said, ‘Ozzy wants to talk to you.’ Ozzy tells me that Randy died, and asks if I’m available’”: The guitarist who was hired to fill in for Randy Rhoads – only to be fired immediately afterward
“One of the most creative and respected effects platforms in our industry”: Ernie Ball has acquired pioneering pedal firm Source Audio – what does it mean for the brands and the guitar market at large?
“Part of the deal was we couldn’t disturb the penguins.” From Metallica playing in the Antarctic to Van Halen performing in a blizzard — here are the wild stories behind three of rock’s coldest concerts
“Don’t expect too much, too fast”: John Mayer’s guitar teacher, Tomo Fujita, thinks that always looking to level up your guitar skills is a dangerous game
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