What's coming in issue 290…

Issue 290 will soon hit the shelves. It's on sale 10 May to be precise, but until then, here's a glimpse of what's in store:

Slash gives us insight into his playing on Velvet Revolver's new album, Libertad - expect the unexpected:
"I rediscovered the old blues players and it had an effect on the way I played… When I got in the studio I deviated from the normal path and used a Strat on one song and Gretsch on another…"

Dave Burrluckputs the new, digital Fender VG Stratocaster into perspective in its first UK review:
"The VG is unquestionably the most forward-looking Stratocaster since Fender launched the model 53 years ago. Yet such is our industry that apart from one extra knob and a sliver of discrete electronic augmentation in front of the bridge, it could be the same guitar"

Offering playing advice on your unmissable free DVD:
"Fleet-fingered German Maestro" Thomas Blug;
"Downtuned metal mayhem" from Deftones' Steph Carpenter;
"The master of soulful acoustic playing," Tommy Emmanuel;
And our classic track features "hot blues stylings to stir the blood" - full tab and backing tracks for Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Mary Had A Little Lamb

And Chris Vinnicombe charts five decades of Vox