Latest articles by Rob Laing
'Recognising rising musicians that are pushing guitar forward in music and culture': Hear the new guitarists who have been selected for the Fender Next Class of 2024
Players from South America, Mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, USA, Australia and the UK
"Epiphone’s premium recreations of some of the most popular and iconic guitar designs of all time": The 7 new Inspired By Gibson Custom Shop models are a guitar tour-de-force – including Les Paul '59 and Custom models
Four electrics and three acoustics with 'open book' headstocks and some premium features – and Taylor Swift's new favourite stage guitar is amongst them
"If the Porsche 911 is the platonic ideal of a sports car and the Submariner Rolex is the ideal of a watch, the Juno 6 is that for The Midnight – it's in its beating heart": Tyler Lyle talks essential gear, sax appeal and taking synthwave on the road
Ahead of The Midnight's first-ever UK festival headline appearance, we talk live sets, the next Midnight album and their co-founder's choice for the greatest guitar pedal ever made for lo-fi sounds
"That guitar chord Andy came up with was just mind-blowing”: How The Police taught the ultimate lesson of less-is-more on Walking On The Moon… but reportedly without the flanger pedal we all assumed
"It wasn’t really the sort of music that benefited from additional players, it was a locked unit with the brilliant interplay between the three of us"
Gibson's CEO has just revealed some guitar-shaped easter eggs: Three new Epiphone models with 'open book' headstocks are on their way
The Gibson-style headstock is currently only available on the Adam Jones and Greeny Epiphone signature Les Pauls – but that looks set to change
"Nobody's gonna tell me that a hunk of wood with strings stretched across it is sacred": Pete Townshend reveals all about why he became a guitar smasher
"I think a lot of people struggle to buy their first instruments, they build up a relationship with them but I never had that but I don't know quite why that is"
"AC/DC made 50 albums, but all their albums were the same. It wasn’t the way the Who worked. We were an ideas band": Pete Townshend admits he doesn't enjoy playing live with the band much anymore but still wants to release new music
"If I’m really honest, I’ve been touring for the money"
"I know that is a 25-year-old's spirit just burning – like a Chevy engine": The story of The Gaslight Anthem's classic song, The '59 Sound
Brian Fallon on the sound and spirit of his greatest song to date
"I like your version better than ours!": Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist covers Toto's Rosanna and wows Steve Lukather
Casper Esmann's version also features a candidate for most impressive capo slide of 2024!
These crazy newly unearthed Gibson archive guitar designs from the '50s prove just how bold it was in the golden era
Wait until you see the headstocks!
"A new benchmark for electric guitar value?": Shergold ST14 Telstar Standard review
The resurgent British brand becomes more accessible with an electric that takes classic influences to make a strong statement
Set up your electric guitar: how to adjust action, truss rod, string height and radius, pickup height and clean your fingerboard and frets
A step-by-step setup guide for your electric guitar to get it playing and sounding great
If you're restringing your acoustic guitar for the first time there's one thing you might need to avoid doing
These tips will show you the way
"When I heard you play, I said, 'that sounds something like Guitar Slim, BB King and myself'. I've got to talk to you, to get to know you" – when Buddy Guy met Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram
The blues fire burns bright here
"I’m telling you, I have a hit record here. I’m going to tour the world for the longest time and if you don’t give this to me, I have another company that will!”: Triple-neck guitars, modern-day cowboys and the story of Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive
"It was quite a process and I believe that each triple-neck is worth about $50,000 – not in materials, but as far as what it costs the company to make them"
Phil Manzanera on being sampled by Kanye West and Jay-Z: "Who knew that I would earn more money from a short guitar riff that I wrote one evening on a sofa in front of the telly in 1978 than I ever earned in the entire 50 years as a member of Roxy Music?"
The guitarist had no say in his riff being used on Watch The Throne track No Church In The Wild but says he received a one-third share of the publishing and royalties revenue
"It has a riff that gives Matt Cameron the opportunity to be as great as we know him to be": Stone Gossard reveals the new Pearl Jam song that has "probably one of the greatest drum fills of all time"
The guitarist also explains why he wants to work with producer Watt on another Pearl Jam album after Dark Matter
"The only thing I could hear coming through the window was the bass": Eddie Vedder recalls the Ten single he co-wrote while being locked out of a Pearl Jam rehearsal
But the timeline of the song remains somewhat confusing
"We’re thinking, why would we do someone else’s song? Why can’t you take one of our songs?": How Simple Minds' Don't You (Forget About Me) eventually became the perfect meeting of worlds – but two other stars turned it down first
They didn't want to record Keith Forsey's song, but it became a US No. 1 for the Glasgow band via The Breakfast Club and fan John Hughes
How to fix three of your guitar's most easily overlooked issues
Gibson Master Luthier Jim DeCola knows how to solve control mechanical control knob, output jack and pickup switch issues
"When we saw the bill afterward, that's why we're in this room now": Joe Elliot offers a tour of the home studio he built to save Def Leppard money after the cost of making Hysteria
Its Neve 8424 console proved to be a great investment for the vocalist and Leppard sound engineer Ronan McHugh
"He didn't tap a foot or move his head or anything. He listened to it all the way through and I thought he hated it": When an Eagle, Heartbreaker, Roger Linn and an Oberheim OB-X combined forces for a pop masterpiece – the Boys Of Summer story
Tom Petty rejected Mike Campbell's synth and drum machine demo, Don Henley didn't make that mistake… but the 1984 hit had other obstacles to overcome
"It captures the very essence of Page’s original instrument": Gibson drops $50,000 Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck signature model, and each guitar has been played and signed by the Led Zeppelin legend himself
If there's a bustle in your wallet, don't be alarmed now
