
Jonathan Horsley
Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
Latest articles by Jonathan Horsley

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai get their teenage kicks in video for new single featuring Glenn Hughes
By Jonathan Horsley published
I Wanna Play My Guitar is a love-letter to the instrument from two maestros on top of their game

An EVH electric with fixed bridge and fine tuners? The Wolfgang Special TOM is one classy speedster
By Jonathan Horsley published
EVH Gear just made your hardware choices a lot more interesting with the new Wolfgang Special TOM, available in Oxblood, Husk White and Gloss Black

Jackson unveils stripped down single-pickup shred classics in ltd edition Pro Plus Pure Metal range
By Jonathan Horsley published
Pure Metal or no metal at all, wimps and posers leave the hall...

Victory Amps has reimagined Pete Honore’s Deputy tube amp as a super-portable lunchbox head
By Jonathan Horsley published
If you're like Danish Pete and looking for a compact single-channel head for '60s British-style cleans and overdriven '70s rock tones, you'll find all that and more inside this lunchbox

ThorpyFX’s Hanami fuzz pedal is packed with NOS germanium, dynamic, and looks blooming lovely
By Jonathan Horsley published
Unleash some flower power upon your 'board with the all-new fuzz from ThorpyFX

“I realised he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out”: Rick Beato on Giacomo Turra scandal
By Jonathan Horsley published
Turra has been accusations of using other guitar player's arrangements and passing them off as his own. Beato remains unconvinced of Turra's playing – and his apology

Vintage mojo from a $180 beginner bass guitar? Meet the Harley Benton PB-62
By Jonathan Horsley published
There's no denying the inspiration behind this budget-friendly four-string but the classics never go out of style

Fender and Brad Paisley introduce the Custom Shop 1967 ‘Lost Paisley’ Telecaster
By Jonathan Horsley published
This limited edition Tele resurrects a unicorn finish and applies it to a top-tier vintage build featuring Seymour Duncan pickups and Glaser G Bender

Steven Wilson reveals the $20 plugin he used for all the guitars on his new space rock epic
By Jonathan Horsley published
And it turns out it is the same affordable plugin Finneas used on Billie Eilish’s Barbie track, What Was I Made For?

Nail the sound of a holy grail tube amp with a pedal you made yourself
By Jonathan Horsley published
Megabucks tube amp tones beloved by the likes of Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Carlos Santana in a stompbox you assemble yourself? No wonder the first batch sold out within a day

Magic Mike Dawes has turned a Sleep Token track into a work of solo acoustic guitar genius
By Jonathan Horsley published
Dawes makes this sort of thing look easy but on the scale of difficulty his version of Euclid is up there with impossible

How Rush marshalled Alex Lifeson’s dreams to write a bona-fide prog-rock classic
By Jonathan Horsley published
A tour-de-force of instrumental prog, La Villa Strangiato is the sound of Rush at the height of their powers, and this is how the Hemispheres epic came together

Don’t sleep on Catalinbread’s Wake if you’re looking for “dream pop” tones on your pedalboard
By Jonathan Horsley published
Wake is a chorus with a blendable clean sub-octave effect that can help you dream a little bigger and make one guitar sound huge

PRS keeps the limited edition releases coming with the return of the classic CE22 bolt-on
By Jonathan Horsley published
Low turn pickups, coil split, top-shelf hardware and sweet finishes make this rare bolt-on a serious high-end option for all occasions
![Epiphone goes high-end with its Inspired By Gibson Custom 2025 collection: [from left] the '63 Firebird in Polaris White is joined by a 1959 Les Paul Standard, a '64 SG Standard, a 1960 Les Paul Special in TV Yellow and a 1962 ES-335 reissue.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3N4uVp3ezzrrhjCbY8KNfn.jpg)
Epiphone expands and upgrades Inspired By Gibson Custom range with 8 stunning "reissue" electrics
By Jonathan Horsley published
Gibson USA pickups, rosewood 'boards, Vintage Gloss finishes, 3D scanned neck profiles – the Les Pauls, Firebirds, ES-335 and SG of the Inspired By Gibson Custom range might be Epiphone's best yet
![YouTuber Aaron Rash [left] wears grey and an Adidas beanie and checked trousers as he poses with his Veleno-clone aluminium guitar. On the right, Kurt Cobain performs in 1993 with Nirvana at their MTV Live and Loud show in Seattle.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aqcaqZZK7FsRFWvoMPzMF9.jpg)
Nirvana tone sleuth Aaron Rash solves the final part of the mystery – Kurt Cobain's In Utero guitar
By Jonathan Horsley published
Rash’s many years down the rabbit hole have been rewarded as he finally gets his hands on the exact same model Cobain used and it’s an oddball offset with “absolutely wild” pickups

Devin Townsend is taking an indefinite break from touring but promises “dozens” of projects to come
By Jonathan Horsley published
Townsend’s forthcoming hiatus from the road will see him launch The Ruby Quaker YouTube series, allowing him to explore “dozens of creative ventures” he never had time for before

Joe Bonamassa announces new album, Breakthrough – listen to the title-track now
By Jonathan Horsley published
Is this a new direction for Bonamassa or an expansion of his style? Breakthrough drops on 18 July

“The EP635 delivers the unmistakable high-gain aggression and clarity that Engl fans love”: Engl packs its iconic Fireball head into a compact dual-channel stompbox with onboard noise gate and IR support
By Jonathan Horsley published
You wait months for two high-gain classic tube amps to be reimagined in pedal form then along come two in the same week

Steven Wilson on the challenges and opportunities of mixing Pink Floyd At Pompeii
By Jonathan Horsley published
Wilson was in conversation with former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason at a special BFI IMAX screening of Adrian Maben's recently restored and rereleased concert movie

Exquisite stompboxes, built to last a lifetime, meet Red Witch’s new Apothecary Series
By Jonathan Horsley published
The Apothecary Series includes fuzz, overdrive, phaser, chorus/vibrato and modulated delay, and designer Ben Fulton says they're so durable they might outlast us all

Linkin Park reveal secret weapon behind their From Zero guitar tone
By Jonathan Horsley published
Do you even have a nü-metal 2.0 pedalboard if it doesn’t have a Ball Buster?

Robert Plant is selling gear for charity, including totally unique John Birch-modded ‘62 Stratocaster
By Jonathan Horsley published
The 1990 Les Paul that Les Paul gave the former Led Zeppelin frontman has been sold but that Strat is one super-cool refin – so too the mandolin and resonator
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