CATEGORIES

KINGPIN of the BLUES

JOE BONAMASSA RETURNS WITH TIME CLOCKS, HIS STRONGEST AND MOST DIVERSE ALBUM TO DATE — AND ALSO DISCUSSES HIS NEWFOUND ROLE AS 2021’S FOREMOST BLUES/ROCK IMPRESARIO

Orange Is the New Shred

Dean Guitars Md24 Floyd Roasted Maple

Echoes From Another World

Cheap Trick's RICK NIELSEN talks John Lennon, Jeff Beck, "cool little guitars" and the band's milestone 20th album, In Another World

SENDING UP A FLARE

Sedulous tone maverick explains how simply recording big, hairy, gnarly guitar riffs into his iPhone became his “life raft for sanity,” getting him out of his bunker, forging new connections and birthing a creative oasis amid the chaos

THE COMMITTED SINNER

JOHN 5 — a guy who really, really, really loves playing guitar — tells you everything you need to know about SINNER, his brand-new solo album featuring a QUEEN cover, some carefully hone driffs — and guest appearances by DAVE MUSTAINE and KISS man PETER CRISS

ONWARDS

STALWART YES GUITARIST STEVE HOWE ON THE INSPIRATION, TONES AND SENTIMENT BEHIND THE QUEST, THE PROG-ROCK MASTERS’ FIRST STUDIO ALBUM SINCE THE PASSING OF FOUNDING BASSIST CHRIS SQUIRE

Port Authority

GIBSON GENERATION G-00 AND G-200 ACOUSTICS

Metallica in the Black

Thirty years after famously fracturing the world of metal (and heavy rock in general), metallica’s self-titled 1991 masterpiece — aka the Black Album — is getting the deluxe reissue treatment. In this exclusive interview, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett pull back the veil on the album that became “the master key to everything”

Young 'N' Hungry Dirty Honey

Dirty Honey guitarist John Notto explains why this riff-fueled Los Angeles four-piece is ready for literally anything — including the big, big, big time

Blacklisted!

On the Metallica Blacklist, 53 acts try their hand at reinterpreting one of the Black album’s 12 tracks in their own voice. Here, four artists — St. Vincent, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr and Rodrigo y Gabriela’s Rodrigo Sánchez — discuss how they did it, and what Metallica means to each of them.

Danko Jones: Loud and Proud

Power trio, the outspoken canadian rocker’s latest, is drenched in the kind of swagger that’s been missing from rock since Mötley Crüe called it a day the first time around

Billy Gibbons Goes To The Desert

How ZZ Top legend Billy F. Gibbons and his band (guitarist Austin Hanks and former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum) headed to the California High Desert to seek Rock ’N’ Roll inspiration — with a side of “mystery”

Bernth

How an Austrian shred whiz took inspiration from his own popular weekly YouTube videos — and rabid fanbase — to complete his first album, a dazzling project four years in the making

Speed Shop

CHARVEL PRO-MOD SERIES

Combo Breaker

BOSS NEXTONE SPECIAL

ROAD- TESTED Royalty

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram assumes his throne atop the Delta blues tradition

Liz Phair

AFTER AN 11-YEAR SELF-EXILE, LIZ PHAIR IS BACK IN TOP FORM — WITH SOME UNCOMMON TUNINGS

PERFECTLY FRANK PERFECTLY

THE TRUE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF EDDIE VAN HALEN’S LEGENDARY FRANKENSTEIN GUITAR

Enslaved

THIRTY YEARS INTO THE GAME, THESE VENERABLE NORWEGIAN EXTREME METALLERS ARE STILL SHAKING THINGS UP WITH “A BIT OF CHAOS”

Evil and Divine

The story of an unlikely pairing — L.A. Guns’ Tracii Guns and Stryper’s Michael Sweet — and their doomy new side-project, Sunbomb

Ayron Jones

Seattle’s self-taught six-string dynamo talks tone, tension, channeling Tom Morello — and why he considers himself the Bruce Lee of guitarists

And The Cradle Will Rock

His father was one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived, and now Wolfgang Van Halen is carrying that famous name forward. In a revealing interview, he discusses the creation of his new album, MammothWVH,, on which he played all the instruments, including Eddie’s iconic Frankenstein. He recalls what he learned as a boy from the best player on the planet — and the fun they had performing together in Van Halen

Revival of the Fittest

ORIGIN EFFECTS RD COMPACT HOT ROD

The Thick of It

EVENTIDE MICROPITCH DELAY

Silver Lining

STERLING BY MUSIC MAN MARIPOSA AND CUTLASS CT50HSS

Buzz Bin

THE STRIPPED-DOWN appeal of the EVH Striped Series of guitars will most likely never lose its enduring popularity for Van Halen fans and players alike. Even the many iterations of the Wolfgang series adopted by numerous artists continues to grow by leaps and bounds. But if you ask me, I’ve been digging the EVH 5150 Series Standard guitar, which combines the very best attributes of Eddie Van Halen’s famed “5150” guitar along with the refined tones of Eddie’s innovatively designed Wolfgang guitars.

Zach Person

How a jaw-dropping Gary Clark Jr. cover on American Idol led to to sharing a stage with buddy Guy, sharing bills with Foo Fighters — and releasing a multi-faceted debut album

Don't Panic!

Jimmy Brown explains how to use the Proco Panic Button to boost your guitar volume through a pa system

On The Road Again?

Paul Gilbert, the Eagles’ Vince Gill and Zepparella’s Gretchen Menn discuss a shift from boring to touring

Cedric Burnside

THE GRANDSON OF MISSISSIPPI HILL COUNTRY BLUES GREAT R.L. BURNSIDE GOES ALL IN — AND ALL OUT — ON HIS NEW ALBUM, I BE TRYING