IT WAS late 1993 and I was chatting with one of Music Maker Publications’ bosses in our offices in Cambridgeshire. The techniques section of Guitarist, the magazine I edited at the time, had become a huge success, with articles like music editor Phil Hilborne’s transcriptions of great guitar solos often the first thing readers reached for.

Instrumental rock was still ‘a thing’ but grunge was huge, as were glam metal and neo-classical rock. Guitar solos were still the rage and Steve Vai, and this month’s cover star Joe Satriani, had made having musical knowledge de rigueur. Guitar institutes and academies were springing up to take advantage of this new desire for guitarists to ‘learn properly’. So my boss and I reasoned we could hive off Guitarist’s technique section, build on it and create a whole new magazine. Phil and I put our heads together to come up with a format, and to enlist suitable tutors to create the content, and Guitar Techniques sprang to life in March 1994.