As guitarists such as link Wray, Hank Marvin, Grant Green and Giovanni Paolo Foscarini (Look him up!) have taught us, compelling guitar-based music does not require vocals or lyrics. Below — inspired by our two cover stars — we offer up a guide to 30 (technically 31!) hardworking instro-centric guitarists whose solos are worth at least a thousand words.
JOE SATRIANI
MUCH LIKE HIS old student Steve Vai, Joe Satriani’s influence has echoed in the waves of guitarists that have come after him. His ear for big, bluesy hooks and liquid legato lines set him apart early on — as evidenced by the enduring popularity of his solo albums like Surfing with the Alien, Flying in a Blue Dream and The Extremist, his session work with Mick Jagger and, in more recent years, his achievements in supergroup Chickenfoot.
“Context is everything,” he once told me. “It’s all about how you apply the artistry. It has to make sense [at] that moment in time. Imagine you’re playing music for a scene in a film with a cute baby walking toward the camera. You wouldn’t play the most grotesque and dissonant notes possible, right? But what if that baby was covered in blood and had a huge knife in its hand? That’s totally different! I can’t say flat nines always sound bad… they sound perfectly beautiful in Phrygian or Phrygian dominant. But if you play a C# when everyone else is in C major and you are going to stick out. There’s the context!” To find out about Satch’s newest music.
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Kittie - Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara Mcleod discuss the canadian metal powerhouse's unexpected rebirth — by fire!
Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod explain that making new music was “not on their bingo card” when the band regrouped in 2022 for a few festival appearances, preferring to think of the sets as more of a “final lap” than a new beginning. But drilling into old favorites — whether the nu-flavored teenage slams of 1999’s Spit or the more venomously groove-thrashed tunes of their late-’00s period — revealed that despite not having raged together in years, there was something undeniably special about Kittie’s musical connection. “Playing with these girls is like putting on an old pair of pants,” Lander says. “It’s very comfortable — and it looks good too.”
McKinley James - Why all you really need is a guitar, a drummer and some serious low-end six-string skills
Nashville-based blues rocker McKinley James came flying out of the gate in 2022 with his Dan Auerbachproduced EP, Still Standing By. His momentum screeched to a halt, however, when his keyboardist split, leaving only him and his drummer, Jason Smay (who also happens to be his father). “For a moment, I was like, ‘What are we going to do?” James says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, other bands have succeeded as a duo. Maybe we can, too.”
TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay
THE MID EIGHTIES was a golden age for digital delay, thanks to the proliferation of pro- and studio-quality rack effects units from Eventide, Korg, Lexicon, Roland and Yamaha.
Danelectro Doubleneck
WHEN I THINK back to the Seventies, the famously coined “Me” decade, it seems the only surefire way you could leave audiences awestruck was to strap on a doubleneck guitar.
CARLOS ALOMAR
The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) \"Fame\" with John Lennon
GEORGE TERRY
It turns out Eric Clapton's Seventies guitarist (and co-writer of \"Lay Down Sally\") also played on ABBA's \"Voulez-Vous.\" Below, he looks back on a decade-plus of E.C., Bee Gees, Diana Ross and more
FRANK MARINO
The Mahogany Rush frontman charts the band's Seventies lows and highs, plus SG's, pickups and how he was definitely not visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix
DEWAYNE "BLACKBYRD" MCKNIGHT
The jazz/funk/fusion veteran on his smooth segue from Herbie Hancock sideman to full-on Funkdaledic member -plus his '70s gear and what he learned from Shuggie Otis
PAT TRAVERS
The Canadian-born virtuoso discusses the rise and fall of the Pat Travers Band, witnessing the U.K. punk revolution and the riotous roots of \"Snortin' Whiskey\"
JOE PERRY
The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston
