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The Latest Breaking News from Billy Gibbons

“I played Brian Setzer’s personal guitars – the pickups give you more dynamic control. I thought, ‘I have to recreate this!’” How TV Jones revived That Great Gretsch Sound – despite being an underdog in the pickup world

One persona’s small-shop attitude and one-to-one service secured his company’s place in a challenging market, and helped revitalize the Gretsch brand

Guitar World

“I said, ‘The only way we can play 40 minutes is if we include Purple Haze.’ This guy grabbed me and said, ‘You got a lot of nerve!’” Billy Gibbons once covered Jimi Hendrix hits while supporting Hendrix on tour – and the guitar hero watched

Few players would have had the nerves to cover Hendrix while supporting him on tour, but Gibbons is made of sterner stuff – and the bold move sparked a lasting friendship

Guitar World

“This is basically the single-coil equivalent of what Eddie Van Halen did when he wired a humbucker directly to the volume control on his Frankenstein guitar”: Why the Fender Esquire remains a stone-cold classic

Loved by Billy Gibbons, Steve Cropper and Jeff Beck, the Fender Esquire is one of those guitars that have stood the test of time and proved that sometimes one pickup is all you need

Guitar World

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“Would I play it for a whole show? Absolutely not! I’m so happy to get that thing off. It’s brutal”: ZZ Top’s Elwood Francis on his latest weird bass acquisition – the 15-string ‘High Selecta’ bass

The guitar tech-turned-band member already struggled with a 17-string monstrosity, before adding a 15-string to his arsenal – and says he can’t forget his days cleaning the band’s fuzzy guitars

Guitar World

“Whenever I’d see him play live it was an off-the-rack Strat. He was never one to say, ‘I’ve got to play that’”: Joe Perry says he was planning to take Jeff Beck’s Strat on tour with Aerosmith –but its owner was the only special thing about it

The Aerosmith great been discussing friendship with the late, great Beck – and says he almost took his Strat on tour last year, before the shows were cancelled

Guitar World

Las Vegas honours ZZ Top icon with special ceremony for 'Billy Gibbons Day'

Billy Gibbons' home town of Las Vegas, Nevada, rolls out the red carpet with City Hall ceremony for ZZ Top star

Louder

“The first big gig for Starship was opening for Skynyrd in Florida in front of like 30,000 people. I had all these note-for-note solos, going, ‘God, I hope I nail these!’” Alastair Greene played sideman to rock greats –before he came back to the blues

The guitarist recalls the stress of his no rehearsal debut for Starship, learning lessons from Robin Trower and growing up with Seymour Duncan

Guitar World

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“This is like Santana’s Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock or Hendrix’s Machine Gun, an act of freeform radicalism”: The best guitar solos of 2024

From a supernova of tapping and pitch-shifted metal guitar anarchy to all-star team-ups, here is your year in lead guitar – featuring Mdou Moctar, Diamond Rowe and some dudes named Satriani and Vai…

Guitar World

Matt Sorum rejected guest spot with Guns N' Roses

Matt Sorum "declined" a guest spot on Guns N' Roses' reunion tour.

BANG Premier

“I only picked up guitar in the first place to impress my father. I didn’t have a true desire to play that great players like Joe Bonamassa did”: Billy Corgan opens up on his guitar insecurities and being cast as the Smashing Pumpkins’ “big, bad Dracula”

On Aghori Mhori Mei, the Smashing Pumpkins recapture the vibe, feel and tones of their classic early ’90s LPs. Corgan explains how, why – and what took them so long

Guitar World

“AC/DC signed my Strat. I had everybody sign it: Neil Young, Jeff Beck… When Angus saw Beck’s signature he said, ‘Oh, the bouffant!’” Jim Suhler on being married by Billy Gibbons, the advice SRV gave him and why he didn’t pay Joe Bonamassa for a sick solo

Best known as George Thorogood’s right-hand man, the Texan slide demon has racked up plenty of adventures with his Monkey Beat trio

Guitar World

“I doubt our detractors would have the balls to do what we’ve done. You have to humble yourself at the altar of rock’n’roll”: How Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme rose above the chaos to make Lullabies To Paralyze

The chaos, confusion and righteous vision of Queens Of The Stone Age and Josh Homme

Louder

“My playing has always sucked, but it sells, because I keep it simple, I guess. I’m not a guitar player, I never took the time”: Soul icon Steve Cropper on writing Green Onions, stressing out Brian May – and the secret of Billy Gibbons’ guitar style

Cropper says he isn't it a great guitar player but if you co-wrote Green Onions and (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, you don't need technical wizardry. He walks us through a career marked by hits, grooves and soul

Guitar World

“I thought Billy was the coolest guitarist I’d ever heard, and that opinion hasn’t changed in 50 years”: Add some Texas blues sizzle to your lead playing with this lesson in Billy Gibbons' sweet soloing style

This lesson is the ZZ Top content you need to stay cool while bringing the heat. It will develop your sense of pacing and blues phrasing, and give you a chance to let some pinch harmonics fly off the fingerboard

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“I took over where Billy Gibbons left off and did my half of the solo, and it was a very rare thing. My wife loves it. She doesn’t love anything I do...” Brian May, Billy Gibbons and Steve Cropper on how the three guitar icons learned to play together

For the latest record from Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, the Stax legend enlists two equally iconic players. Here three kings of the six-string tell us what went down in Friendlytown

Guitar World

“What we have in common is that we don’t shred for the sake of it. In my case, it’s because I can’t!” Brian May on his unlikely guitar kinsmanship with Steve Cropper and Billy Gibbons

Recruited for the recent Cropper tune Too Much Stress, May says the three masters fit together better than you might think

MusicRadar

“Watching his hands in the studio, I learnt something I never knew”: Steve Cropper on ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons’ secret sauce

The legendary guitarists have a special relationship

MusicRadar

“I’ve always said that I don’t play the guitar, I play the strings”: Ernie Ball and John Mayer team up for signature Silver Slinky guitar strings in a unique gauge that could be the Goldilocks option between heavy and light

Whether or not you agree with the assertion that Mayer plays the strings or the guitar – or both – his signature set runs from 10.5-47 and will be a crowd-pleaser for players in-between gauges

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Guitar World

“Billy had already played half a solo. The producer said, ‘Can you play the other half?’ I said, ‘Can’t you give him a whole solo and me a whole solo?’” Brian May explains why he was reluctant to share a solo with Billy Gibbons – and what changed his mind

May and Gibbons were recruited by session icon Steve Cropper to add their guitar star power to his latest release, Friendlytown

Louder

“A whole generation of bands are standing on the brink of extinction. Look around and see how many have gone”: How Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes became one of American rock’s great unsung heroes

Slash, Billy Gibbons and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Doors – they’re all fans of Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes

Guitar World

“The Black Crowes got thrown off the ZZ Top tour. We picked up where they left off…Every night the tour manager warned us when the explosions were going to go off”: Michelle Malone gave up sax for guitar – and had John Mayer “begging” to join her shows

With her 20th album looming, the raw Americana player looks back on working with Albert King and Blackberry Smoke members, her ever-loving vintage gear and running her own label

Guitar World

“They really should replicate that, because it just has some magic”: Alex Skolnick on Criss Oliva's favorite guitar, “the Gargoyle” – the ESP Superstrat he likens to Billy Gibbons’ Pearly Gates Les Paul Standard

Skolnick got up close and personal with this one-of-one Mirage when he stepped up to replace the late Oliva in Savatage. Like the ZZ Top man's Burst, it has a tone that's all its own

Guitar World

“They asked Billy Gibbons, John Mayer and me. I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck, but it won’t”: Steve Lukather confirms Jeff Beck guitar tribute project as he wields his iconic White Strat to cover Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing

Lukather is one of the first players to use the late guitar great's old instruments as part of an ongoing “musicians’ project to honor Jeff’s legacy” – and many more are expected to follow

Guitar World

“It’s interesting how something so subtle can be so dramatic on the player’s end”: Seymour Duncan supercharges two classic Billy Gibbons guitar tones with new signature Tele and Les Paul pickups

The Pearly Gates have been beefed-up as the Hades Gates, and the ZZ Top legend's Red Devil humbucker has been turned into a hot output Telecaster pickup

MusicRadar

“From scorching lead guitar to his own line of hot sauces, Billy Gibbons has never been afraid of a little extra heat”: Seymour Duncan and the ZZ Top frontman team up for some blazing new pickups for your Telecaster and Les Paul

There's a hotter-than-hell Hades humbucker set to soup-up your own Pearly Gates at home, and the Red Devil single-coil sized 'bucker for dropping into your Tele's bridge position

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