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The Latest Breaking News from Billy Gibbons

“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

MusicRadar

“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

Guitar World

“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

Louder

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“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

Guitar World

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“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

MusicRadar

“Pearly Gates, our long-standing fave-rave six-string, entered the studio to do that righteous thing”: Billy Gibbons on bringing out his legendary Les Paul for Slash’s all-star blues album – and the liquor store run-in that sparked their friendship

Gibbons checks in to tell us how he and reimagined Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man for a new era, and to assure us why the blues is in safe hands with today's players

Guitar World

“My favorite British guitar players are amazing, but they all pale in comparison to the original blues guys. That was their own personal technique, from its origin”: Slash on his journey to discover the original guitar heroes

Orgy of the Damned finds the Guns N' Roses guitarist and A-list guests tackling blues standards that shaped his sound. Here he talks blues gear, the ethos, and how blues can be a force for good

Guitar World

“Billy Gibbons pulls out this big-ass yellow 17-string bass and he’s like, ‘Okay, we’ll play it for a song, right?’” ZZ Top’s Elwood Francis on teching for Joe Perry, lying to Steve Vai – and the curse of playing that viral 17-string bass

The gear-trashing DIY enthusiast once had to choose between Vai and Joe Perry, before being fired and rehired by Guns N’ Roses –in a matter of days

Guitar World

“I said to Billy, ‘We should order one of these, and I’ll play it. It’ll be hilarious.’ Then it went viral. I hate playing that bass. Now I’ve got to play it every night”: Elwood Francis on why he regrets his 17-string bass becoming a ZZ Top staple

Elwood Francis reveals the origins of his preposterous 17-string bass – and why he’s disappointed it went viral

Guitar World

It's a blues extravaganza starring Slash, Kingfish, Samantha Fish, Gary Clark Jr. and Billy Gibbons – only in the new Guitar World

Also starring Lamb of God & Mastodon, plus Marty Friedman, Bruce Kulick, Towa Bird, Eric Gales' pedalboard, Goo Goo Dolls, our EVH SA-126 review and more

Guitar World

“Queens are gutted we aren't able to play for you.” Queens Of The Stone Age cancel European tour as Josh Homme returns to the United States for “emergency surgery”

QOTSA share “frustration and disappointment” after being forced to cancel eight European shows

Louder

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"You move at the speed of inspiration very quickly, and so things feel very possible." Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme on the lasting impact of working with his friends Dave Grohl and Trent Reznor

QOTSA's Josh Homme talks influences and inspirations

Guitar World

“A guitar from that dark period when the single-cut Les Paul was discontinued”: Is this oddball ’60s electric the weirdest custom model Gibson has ever created? Gibson’s archive curator sure thinks so

The guitar – reportedly admired by Billy Gibbons – was built in 1966 for Torpedo Joe, and is said to be one of the strangest custom models Gibson has crafted

Guitar World

“It’s like guitar heaven”: Brian May turned down the chance to play with Steve Cropper and Billy Gibbons – but when his rejection email was used to write a new song, he had no choice but to take part

The Queen guitarist trades solos with Gibbons on Too Much Stress, the first taste of session legend Cropper’s new record Friendlytown

Guitar World

“St. Vincent is one of the best players in the world right now… she has that Jeff Buckley thing going on”: Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr names 10 guitarists who shaped his bass sound

The Royal Blood frontman explains why guitarists have influenced him more than bassists as he marks the 10th anniversary of the duo’s debut album

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Metal Hammer

"When you're cold-calling musicians, some of whom you don’t even know, it doesn't matter who you are. It's a hard gig": How Slash organised Orgy Of The Damned

With his recent album Orgy Of The Damned – a selection of classics, each sung by a different guest singer – Slash is the latest rock superstar to take the blues road

Guitar World

“There’s nowhere on the planet that these cats would be in the same room together for such a cool low key hang”: Fender just opened a mega new Nashville HQ – and Music City’s finest guitarists were all in attendance

Billy Gibbons, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Chris Shiflett, Guthrie Trapp and many more attended the grand opening of the new location – and some sat round for a jam

Guitar World

“I get accused of not learning more – but I’m not one of those guys. I could learn anything if I wanted to, but I just let it go as it is”: Steve Cropper on recording classic Stax cuts with a Telecaster – and why he thinks his Peavey sounds better

The Stax session icon reflects on the recording of Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay and Soul Man, and looks forward to his new album featuring Billy Gibbons and Brian May

MusicRadar

The elite of Nashville guitar players assemble (and jam) for the opening of Fender's new HQ in the Music City

Brad Paisley, Billy Gibbons, Jack White, Brent Mason, Keith Urban, Guthrie Trapp and Chris Stapleton were all in attendance

Guitar World

“The bass has been given the nickname ‘Momoa’s Koa’”: Jason Momoa is auctioning off a collection of Gibson and Fender Custom Shop guitars and handmade bass builds, including signed Slash and Billy Gibbons Les Pauls

The instruments are all being sold to raise money for a host of charities, having featured in the actor’s On The Roam series

MusicRadar

“I have never experienced anything like that. It was like piano strings, and it was so far off the neck”: Lee Ritenour on the time BB King invited him to play Lucille and the guitar made him work for every note

Ritenour says nobody on the planet could play like BB King did, and the King of the Blues' trademark vibrato was all the more remarkable on such an uncompromising guitar setup

Louder

"It's such a limiting genre": After three albums of blues-rock, the Kris Barras Band have ramped up the heaviness

Kris Barras on the people in power, top advice from Billy Gibbons, and being a "Poundshop version" of Richie Kotzen

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