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The Latest Breaking News from Total Guitar

“It should be – and usually is – pedal-first for us, because pedals can affect your playing so much”: Shoegaze heroes DIIV on how stompboxes formed the building blocks of their new album

After prioritizing pedals in their songwriting process, DIIV reveal how they manage to translate their studio sound to the stage

Guitar World

“There’s not a guitar teacher in the world that would ever teach anyone to play a guitar like that”: Buzz Osborne thinks Jimi Hendrix is one of the greatest guitarists ever – but says his technique was “wrong”

“Hendrix played weird!” says the Melvins maestro

Guitar World

“I’ve typically been afraid of Strats just because they carry so much baggage”: How a gift from Mike McCready helped change St. Vincent’s relationship with the Stratocaster

Listen to the song that St. Vincent reveals begged for a Strat moment

Guitar World

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“You have to have your own sound, do it with authority and let it all hang out… If you do that you communicate with your guitar”: Duane Eddy reflects on his signature sound, hanging with Elvis and the story behind his go-to Gretsch

In this 2018 interview, available online for the first time, Eddy discusses the lessons learned as one of the founders of rock ‘n’ roll guitar

Guitar World

“This disease won’t beat me and I will continue writing and playing for as long as I can”: Glenn Tipton explains how Richie Faulkner and a ‘no surrender’ mindset has helped him adapt his Judas Priest role

Tipton stepped back from official touring duties in 2018, but continues to write and record alongside Faulkner as a crucial member of Judas Priest

Guitar World

“It was found in the trunk of a car. They had sanded it to make it look like it wasn’t mine”: Tyler Bryant's stolen Pinky One Strat was played by Jeff Beck, inscribed by Steven Tyler – and, miraculously, returned to him five years after it was taken

The blues-rock guitarist recalls the loss – and remarkable recovery – of his most significant six-string

Guitar World

"If we do this correctly, I think this could be one of the best blues songs ever!": How Joe Bonamassa and Kevin Shirley took an obscure Tim Curry track to a whole new level

"When I first heard it, I was really stricken by the guitar playing, and I was really taken by the whole vibe of it"

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“You can almost hear The Beatles influence and the Led Zeppelin influence at the front of the song”: How Dave Mustaine channelled unlikely influences for Megdeth's Hangar 18

"These were songs that I took with me to that first band – didn’t get a chance to get them out in my second band – but my third one I did”

MusicRadar

“It’s like Brian May walked over to his tone booth and just turned it up to 11!” Kirk Hammett names his favorite Queen song – and it’s a seriously deep cut

Metallica may have covered Stone Cold Crazy, but that’s not Hammett’s no. 1…

Guitar World

"He wrote it for me, but the record company had the power to prevent any other record coming out and they said, ‘This is a number one smash: Beck doesn’t get this’”: The story of the Stevie Wonder and Jeff Beck connection

Denied the song Stevie Wonder wrote for him, he instead gifted the guitarist a composition that would inspire one of his greatest performances

MusicRadar

“Freddie was a good riffmeister! He was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix. People think he was just concerned with the lighter stuff but it’s not true. He did enjoy the heavy stuff”: Brian May reveals the inside stories behind 13 classic Queen tracks

In a world-exclusive interview, Brian May takes you behind the scenes of the making of 13 iconic Queen cuts, and reveals what inspired his magical guitar playing in Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now and many more

Guitar World

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

MusicRadar

“To me, those are blues machines”: Joe Bonamassa picks his three quintessential guitars for playing the blues – and names his “Les Paul killers”

Bonamassa has one of the most expansive guitar collections around, but if he had to choose, which models would he select as the best bits of kit for playing blues?

Guitar World

“I know Pagey made me mix the outro section half a dozen times: ‘Not enough of me, dear boy! Not enough of me, make me louder!’” – Andy Johns on the challenges of engineering Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll

In 2011 the acclaimed engineer revealed some of the realities behind making Led Zeppelin IV: "John’s got his hi-hat nearly all the way open and that was bleeding all over the place"

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“It was so destroyed you could take the paint off with your hands”: How Rich Robinson brought his ’68 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop back from the brink after Hurricane Sandy

The Black Crowes guitarist says his restored LP is a rare example of an instrument that (eventually) came back stronger following the 2012 disaster

Guitar World

“I still don’t find it easy! It’s one of the most unnatural riffs to play you could possibly imagine”: Brian May finds Bohemian Rhapsody difficult to perform – and he points the blame at “riffmeister” Freddie Mercury

The Queen guitarist has called it “the most unnatural riff to play” and says even now he has to battle with adrenaline when he plays it live

MusicRadar

"I have no idea what I'm going to play when I get to that solo" – Brian May reveals the classic Queen song he improvises most live… and the track he takes the opposite approach with

"Every time the solo comes up live, I think, well, actually I can’t do much better than that"

MusicRadar

“I never liked it, to be honest, the way it was mixed. But I do recognise that it works”: Brian May says Under Pressure sounded like The Who before David Bowie took out the heavy guitar parts

Brian May said he was “beaming” about the guitar on the early versions of Under Pressure. David Bowie was not

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“It’s probably the only time in my career I bowed out, because I knew it was going to be a fight… most of that heavy guitar was lost”: Brian May says David Bowie removed his electric guitar riffs on Under Pressure – and he never liked the results

The Queen guitar legend says the song originally sounded more like a Who-style rocker, but Bowie had other ideas…

Guitar World

On sale now! Inside the new issue of Total Guitar: Queen's Greatest Songs Track By Track – By Brian May

Also in issue 381! Interviews: Yard Act, Sleater-Kinney, Ihsahn and more. Reviews: New gear from Gibson, Fender, Shergold and more. Learn songs by Queen, Bring Me The Horizon and U2

Guitar World

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“That song, and Perfect Crime, we started writing when we were doing pre-production for Appetite" – Slash tells the story of Guns N' Roses's long-in-the-waiting classic You Could Be Mine

"You Could Be Mine was one of Izzy's riffs"

Guitar World

“It’s a little bit softer and you get a different attack”: Matteo Mancuso took the guitar world by storm with his otherworldly playing style – now he’s revealed the secret to his flawless fingerpicking tone: fake nails

He's already given his advice on crafting better lead lines. Now, the young virtuoso has kindly revealed how you can get natural tones to match

Guitar World

“I’m a sloppy guitar player! I’ll be the first to admit that… In retrospect, I should have practiced more”: Ace Frehley isn't going to apologize for his loose playing style – but he also doesn't recommend that players follow in his footsteps

The former Kiss guitarist has often been accused of sloppiness, a label he says he doesn't mind at all

Guitar World

“I had a couple of passes at the solo, and that was it. Keith’s playing great – and it’s unusual to hear me playing at full acceleration outside of Led Zeppelin”: Jimmy Page on his surprise Rolling Stones collaboration, and the gear that made rock history

In this all-encompassing 2020 interview, the Led Zeppelin legend reflects on the evolution of his guitar rig, writing rock’s greatest albums – and how the Beatles shaped the sound of Whole Lotta Love

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