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Guitar Player
“I was slumping over my acoustic guitar and grabbing my chest. I remember thinking, This might be it for me.” Al Di Meola talks about his onstage heart attack and the rush to save his life
Of all the places a musician can have a health emergency, nowhere is more public than the stage. Which is where guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola found himself on the evening of September 27, 2023, performing a concert in Bucharest, when he suffered a heart attack.“It happened right in the middle of a song,” Di Meola tells Guitar Player from Miami. “Some photographer from the Associated Press [Dragos Cristescu] who just happened to be at the show as a fan caught me right at that moment, just as I was slumping over my acoustic guitar and grabbing my chest. That’s...
Martin Barre talks about sharing stages with Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck after Jethro Tull took a "big risk" hiring him in 1968
Martin Barre says Jethro Tull took “a huge plunge into the unknown” when they hired him in 1968, and recalls his early days with the band as “terrifying.”The group had already showcased their blues-rock roots that year with their debut album, This Was. Ian Anderson’s flute added a fresh element to the familiar format, giving it what he called a "sort of progressive blues with a bit of jazz." But that didn't sit too well with guitarist Mick Abrahams, a blues purist who decided to leave and form the hardcore blues-rock group Blodwyn Pig.Three guitarists stepped in to fill the...
Win tickets to see guitarist Ron Artis II in Northern California at 'Guitar Player Presents'
Guitar Player and KC Turner Presents are thrilled to host the hottest act to hail from Hawaii since Jack Johnson. Ron Artis II embodies a similarly warm aloha vibe, and in addition to his acoustic guitar excellence Artis can also summon Hendrix-like histrionics on electric guitar.Most impressively, Artis employs an array of funky freehand techniques. He judiciously applies them to uplifting tunes often focused on the struggles and triumphs of the human condition. Artis has been tearing up the live arena, playing high-profile gigs everywhere from High Sierra Fest to the NAMM Show. He’s celebrating the release of We Are...
Richie Kotzen tells why rehearsing sometimes makes no difference
Richie Kotzen has always been a low-key renegade. In conversation, he's engaging, if not laconic. His cool, calm and edgy demeanor perfectly contrasts the inherent pyrotechnics within his guitar playing. "So much of what I do is based on being in the moment," Kotzen tells Guitar Player.And that's why Kotzen's latest solo offering, the aptly named Nomad, is critical to the next phase of his career. "It's really important for me," he says of Nomad. "There's only eight songs. Every one of those songs was begging to be written."Nomad's cover, which features Kotzen contemplatively staring off into a distant wilderness,...
Fractal’s new VP4 virtual pedalboard puts hundreds of classic stompbox and studio effect models at guitarists' feet
Fractal Audio Systems has announced the new VP4, a compact virtual pedalboard processor that provides four simultaneous effects with a user-friendly experience inspired by traditional electric guitar pedals.The compact multi-effects unit features effects based on the award-winning Axe-Fx III, comprising hundreds of classic stompbox and studio effect models. They include drives, delays, reverbs, choruses, flangers, phasers, pitch and the company's own Plex Delay, plus EQs, compressors, wah, tremolo and many more.The VP4 has four foot switches, with classic on/off switching that makes it intuitive to use like four traditional pedals. In addition, the VP4’s factory default “Gig Mode”...
Eddie Van Halen talks guitar solos, playing fast, and the music teacher who slapped his face when he made a mistake
Jas Obrecht’s chance encounter with a then-unknown Eddie Van Halen on July 23, 1978, resulted in the guitar virtuoso’s first magazine interview, which ran in Guitar Player’s November 1978 issue. Ed and Jas would meet again, including for a five-hour interview in 1980 where they discussed Eddie’s approach to gear and modifications, how he learned to play guitar, the importance of phrasing and much more.That interview, which ran in the magazine's April 1980 issue, included Ed's revealing statements about everything from his music lessons and guitar solos to his thoughts about one of Van Halen's biggest early hits, “Ain't...
“The guitar allows me to switch my brain off from trying to understand the music... The mistakes make it interesting.” Crowded House's Neil Finn on his trial-and-error approach to playing and songwriting
Crowded House’s return five years ago was certainly a welcome one. The Australian-formed group had been dormant since 2016, when it played four shows at the Sydney Opera House and was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s (ARIA) Hall of Fame. So frontman and co-founder Neil Finn’s announcement of resumption and a new lineup – with original bassist Nick Seymour, original producer Mitchell Froom on keyboards, and Finn’s sons Liam and Elroy on guitar and drums, respectively – was greeted with great anticipation, even if the pandemic delayed the group’s return to the stage.“It does feel like it’s got...
"What did we do when the record company asked us for a disco hit? We gave them Highway To Hell!" An archive interview with AC/DC's Angus and Malcolm Young
20 years ago, back in 2003, Guitar Player sat down with Angus and Malcolm Young to look back over their career. Prompted by AC/DC's induction in that year's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame it became a funny and insightful trip through their back catalog, made all the more poignant today with Malcolm Young's death back in 2017. In many ways, it was a normal night for AC/DC. Guitarist Angus Young donned his famous schoolboy uniform, stepped onstage backed by the mighty rhythm playing of his older brother, Malcolm, and proceeded to electrify the crowd like a Gibson-wielding demon. However,...
Roland Orzabal reveals how a chance guitar riff resulted in the Tears for Fears monster hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
Tears for Fears guitarist Roland Orzabal says he wasn't convinced about the hit potential of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" when the group recorded it 40 years ago. And neither, he adds, was his bandmate, Curt Smith.But thanks to a chance riff he came up with on his Fender Stratocaster, the song generated enough interest to keep its creator from throwing it away.Released on the group’s 1984 album, Songs From the Big Chair, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was in fact Tears for Fears' second number-one single, following on the success of its predecessor, "Shout," which had ascended...
Jimi Hendrix shares his struggles with guitar in a 1968 Guitar Player interview
Jimi Hendrix was well into his recording career when he sat down for this interview with Guitar Player, which appeared in the magazine’s December 1968 issue. The magazine was just two years old at the time and still finding its way in the new world it had created for the guitar community. No author’s name appears on the article, and the writer makes no effort to place Hendrix’s career in context by mentioning his albums or titles released up to that time. Still, the interview makes for fascinating retrospective reading. Jimi offers a window into his frustrations with the Experience...
John Mayer reveals signature Ernie Ball string set with a unique gauge combination
John Mayer has added to his growing list of signature gear with the release of a custom gauge Ernie Ball string set.Called Silver Slinky as a nod to his best-selling Silver Sky PRS, the esteemed bluesman has revealed the set has been in development for several years, calling the final result “the ultimate set for my playing style”.It offers an interesting take on the Ernie Ball's standard 10–46 string set by delivering an ultra-precise set of gauges: .0105, .0135, .0175p, .027w, .037, and .047.The ultra-precision of those gauges may raise eyebrows to the causal observer, but as Mayer explains via...
Steve Stevens: The 10 Albums That Changed My Life
“The music of your youth stays with you throughout your lifetime,” says guitar legend Steve Stevens. “I think it’s because the music that’s important to you during your teens comes at a time when you’re experiencing so many things for the first time. You’re becoming sexually aware. You’re learning to form your own opinions and speak your mind. Music plays a key part in all of it.”When asked to compile a list of the 10 records that had shaped him as a guitarist (presented here in no particular order), Stevens — who plays a Knaggs Steve Stevens Signature electric guitar...
Ritchie Blackmore on an “overwhelming” jam with Geroge Harrison – and marveling at the size of his feet
Ritchie Blackmore says jamming Little Richard’s "Lucille" with George Harrison was “overwhelming” and recalls that the former Beatle politely asked if he could play his guitar.In the latest installment of his YouTube series, Tales From The Tavern — in which the former Deep Purple guitarist regales fans with anecdotes from his more than half a century at the heart of British rock and roll — Blackmore looks back on the time he traded licks with Harrison in 1984. It happened during an Australian tour in support of Deep Purple MkII's album Perfect Strangers.“He was friends with Jon Lord...
Dream Theater announces details of their first new music with Mike Portnoy in 15 years – release near ten-minute track, Night Terror
Dream Theater have announced details of their 16th studio album, their first since drummer Mike Portnoy re-joined the band last year.Entitled Parasomnia, it marks the first new music from the band's classic and most revered lineup of guitar wizard John Petrucci, James LaBrie, John Myung, Jordan Rudess and Mike Portnoy since 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Its release, on February 7, 2025 (via Inside Out/SonyY Music) coincides with the North American kickoff to the band’s 40th anniversary world tour.In a true Dream Theater–styled appetizer, the band has released a video for the nearly 10-minute lead single, "Night Terror," which...
Steve Morse pays tribute to Jeff Beck with Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers cover – and reimagines a jazz fusion classic with Angel Vivaldi
Steve Morse offers a caveat before he breaks into a heartfelt cover of Jeff Beck's "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" in a brand-new video. "I apologize for what's about to happen," the shred virtuoso deadpans to his backup band. But there's certainly nothing to make amends for. The result is a dazzling display of virtuosity that features the impressive tapping, muscular bends, emotive vibrato and delicate pinch harmonics for which Morse has long — and rightly — been celebrated.The feat is all the more remarkable when you consider that Morse has been dealing with arthritis, for which he's forcibly...
Bruce Kulick launches his own guitar brand for “period-correct” axes inspired by his Kiss era
Bruce Kulick has entered the world of luthiery by teaming up with Johnny DiFatta's AXN Guitars for ‘80s-style Super Strats that pay homage to his days in Kiss.Together, they will craft boutique, vintage-inspired instruments under the brand name Kulick Guitars, as the guitarist seeks to establish himself off the stage as much as he has on it.Kulick enjoyed a 12-year stint in Kiss that produced eight studio albums. Last year he wrapped up a 23-year run with Grand Funk Railroad.Upon leaving the band, he told Guitar World he wanted to return to the “powerful instruments” that weren’t appropriate in...
Guitar Player ends 58-year print run. Read the editor's final letter
After nearly 58 years in print, Guitar Player magazine will cease publication with its December 2024 issue.The magazine's editor, Christopher Scapelliti, will become digital editor-In-chief of GuitarPlayer.com, where he and the magazine's contributors will continue to serve the interests and needs of the guitar-playing community.Founded in 1967, Guitar Player is the world's oldest continuously published magazine devoted to guitarists, guitar gear — including electric guitars and acoustic guitars — and instruction. Over nearly six decades of publication, GP has featured some of music's most important and iconic guitarists, beginning with its December 1968 cover story on Jimi Hendrix.For its final...
Former Beatle John Lennon's weirdest guitar is one of the last he played
Think of John Lennon’s guitars and most likely his Epiphone Casino comes to mind, or maybe his Rickenbacker 325 or Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric. You almost certainly don’t think of the Sardonyx 800 D II.But Lennon used the Sardonyx during the making of his last album, 1980’s Double Fantasy.So what exactly is it?As it turns out, the Sardonyx is something of a mystery guitar. Its builder, Jeff Levin, was a guitar repairer at Matt Umanov Guitars in Manhattan’s West Village back in the 1970s. Levin built his Sardonyx guitars at home and sold them through Umanov’s, which is most likely where...
Brian May plays guitar for the first time since suffering a minor stroke last month
Brian May delighted fans this past Saturday by turning up unannounced at the Red Special Guitar Meet-Up in Reading, U.K., to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the famous guitar he built with his father, Harold, as a teenager.The event, held annually in Reading, U.K., is — as you would imagine — a haven for all Red Special enthusiasts. However, this is the first time Brian May has stopped by in person."I just wish my dad could see this — it's amazing, it's incredible," May told the crowd after entering to a standing ovation.The event marks the Queen guitarist's first...
Joe Walsh tells why Les Paul is his hero and the story that inspired him
Joe Walsh has cited Les Paul as one of his biggest inspirations, comparing the late luthier and guitarist to a mad scientist.Although he tracked Hotel California with a Fender Telecaster, the Eagles guitarist is often seen with a Les Paul slung over his shoulder. As it happens, it was Walsh who convinced Jimmy Page to buy his now-famous Number 1 1959 Les Paul, the guitar that played a huge role in Led Zeppelin's music.Yet, while Walsh's “quirky and funny” licks and playing style are a world away from the jazz of the guitar's creator, he says he finds Paul...
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