Guitar Player

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Christopher Scapelliti, chris.scapelliti@futurenet.com SENIOR EDITOR Art Thompson, arthur.thompson@futurenet.com ART EDITOR Philip Cheesbrough, philip.cheesbrough@futurenet.com PRODUCTION EDITOR Jem Roberts, jem.roberts@futurenet.com

THERE IS A moment in this issue’s interview with Al Di Meola that, for me, sums up what makes him the consummate musician. Riffing on the modern obsession with shred videos, Al tells interviewer Bill Milkowski there’s no denying the outsize guitar ta

IT WOULD STAND to reason that PRS’s DG Custom 30 and Custom 50 amplifiers, released more than a decade ago, would eventually be joined by a lower-power version, and voila! — the DGT 15 has arrived. The single-channel 15-watt head already had much of

JOHN OATES’ FAVORITE word when it comes to music these days is “untethered.” It speaks to how the 76-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist is feeling as he brings out a new solo album, Reunion, his first since a split with longtime musical partne

MUIREANN BRADLEY MAY be a 17-year-old acoustic guitarist from rural Ireland, but she plays note-perfect renditions of acoustic-guitar ragtime blues classics like a seasoned Mississippi pro. Not only does Bradley possess impeccable technique but she h

LIKE ANY LIFELONG musician, especially a successful one, John Oates has had a number of fine guitars come in and out of his possession. One that stands out is a 1964 Guild F-30 that he first saw Mississippi John Hurt play at the Philadelphia Folk Fes

BY HIS EARLY 20s, Oz Noy was already an in-demand session and live guitarist. Upon his arrival in New York City in the mid ’90s, he won acclaim on the scene and before long was sitting in on jams and maintaining a busy recording and performing schedu

THE FIRST TIME the public saw Dave Stewart, he was tapping away at the keyboard of an MCS Percussion Computer in the video for Eurythmics’ 1983 hit, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” While the song propelled Stewart and his then musical partner Anni

HOW IS IT that a tiny guitar amp with origins that date back 76 years is still considered a monster tone machine today? It’s because Fender got so much right with the humble Champ combo from the start, with “simplicity” as the watchword both then and

THIS IS THE first record only available on CD that I’ve covered in eight years for the aptly named Vinyl Treasures column, so please don’t be too hard on me. Besides, the New Tony Williams Lifetime’s Live at the Village Gate should not be ignored jus

DECEMBER 12, 19 4 3 – APRIL 18, 2 0 24 DICKEY BETTS WAS larger than life in both his personality and musical range. His death at age 80 on April 18 brought the full scope of his musical legacy into focus. As a composer and a guitarist, the founding m

THE ONSTAGE BACKDROP for Al Di Meola’s Electric Years Tour is a huge collage of 17 of his most recognizable album covers. Noticeably absent from the bunch is his groundbreaking 1976 debut, Land of the Midnight Sun. But others like 1977’s Elegant Gyps

BEYOND HIS OBVIOUS six-string skills, Al Di Meola has talents in the kitchen as well, which he demonstrates in his ongoing Home Events. Initiated four years ago during the pandemic and billed as “The Ultimate Music VIP Night,” these Di Meola–curated

GROWING UP IN New York — specifically in Queen’s Kew Gardens — a young Steven Schneider would go to see all-night rock and roll movies at the Eighth Street Playhouse in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Seeing The Song Remains the Same or The Kids Are A

“AT 50, EVERYONE has the face he deserves,” George Orwell wrote, observing how, by that milestone, our experiences, choices and character reflect our interior self. Under the circumstances, that vantage point may be ideal for the candid retrospection

IF YOU HAVEN’T figured out by now, this Dirty Knobs thing is no mere dalliance for Mike Campbell. True, he’ll always be the lead guitarist from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the late Petty’s main musical lieutenant, even on his solo albums. And

RETROSPECTION IS a hallmark of Stephane Wrembel’s Triptych, and it was equally the theme for the May 4 concert at Manhattan’s Town Hall, which culminated his 21st Django à Gogo festival. After opening with Reinhardt’s prelude “Improvisation 1,” Wremb

WHEN ERIC EARLEY recently unearthed a box of demos he’d made on a four-track cassette recorder in the 1990s, he thought it would be amusing to hear his old songs once again. “I borrowed a four-track cassette deck from a friend and started listening t

EVERY GUITARIST HAS at some point in their development been unsure how to approach improvising. Whether it’s a series of chord changes or a certain groove, we just can’t seem to find a way to make our techniques and musical knowledge work for us. For

EVERY ACOUSTIC AFICIONADO needs a 12-string. There’s a magic in coursed string pairs and a distinctive power that Pete Seeger described as “the clanging of the bells.” While reviewing the Taylor 858e LTD 50th Anniversary Grand Orchestra [page 88], I

THE EXOTIC SOUND of the sitar as played by Indian master Ravi Shankar had a huge impact on George Harrison, who started playing one in 1965, famously using it on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown)” from Rubber Soul. That in turn inspired others to

THE NEWEST MEMBER of Peavey’s long-running Classic series of tube amplifiers, the Classic 20 112 is a compact affair with a birch-ply cabinet measuring just 14 by 17.25 by 7.25 inches (HxWxD) and weighing a little over 34 pounds. It’s a nice-looking

SMALL-SHOP NEW HAMPSHIRE pickup maker Scott Miller of Stonewall Pickups has impressed me with a couple of designs I’ve reviewed here in recent years. So when he told me that the Signature Jazzmaster set is his personal favorite of all pickups he curr

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THE FIRST TWO singles from the Doobie Brothers’ fourth album failed to catch fire. So it was a surprise when “Black Water,” the third offering from 1974’s What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Originally is

IT’S BEEN SIX years since Andy Powers introduced V-Class bracing on Taylor 12-strings, and 50 years since founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug introduced the world to a revolutionary new brand that’s gone on to become an acoustic icon. Taylor began re