Golden Year

Going For A Song

It’s so enjoyable to just noodle about on

Satin Stunner

Hot on the heels of the classic CE 24 launching in the SE line for 2024, this new satin Standard version loses the bling and drops the price. Yes, please!

Pocket Rocket

For its latest addition, Boss has crammed a full Katana amplifier into a tiny headphone-amp format – and its long list of features and tones makes it practically irresistible

Birds Of A Feather

Two of Gibson’s most controversial designs, reimagined and rebranded with Epiphone’s moniker. Do they promise the ‘Cream’ of the crop or a ‘Winter’ of discontent?

Flying Hi

Crazy Tube Circuits presents David Gilmour-favoured amp and drive f lavours together in one pedal

Brazilian Buzz

It’s desig ned for Brazilian tropicália music, but this fuzzbox from Beetronics could create a buzz in any musical genre

theWishlist

Dream gear to beg, borrow and steal for...

GORDON SMITH GRANDE & GEIST £1,999 EACH

​CONTACT Gordon Smith Guitars PHONE 01933 391234 WEB

GORDON SMITH GRANDE

PRICE: £1,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: UK TYPE: Double-cutaway

GORDON SMITH GEIST

PRICE: £1,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: UK TYPE:

Golden Age

Ahead of Gordon Smith’s 50th anniversary later this year, we catch up with owner and MD, Doug Sparkes, to fill in the details about the latest chapter of the company’s evolving story

Core Value

Blackstar introduces a timely update to its award-winning programmable guitar amp range, but how do these combos sound?

Practice Makes Perfect

We round up six options for home, practice and live use

Compact Companions

This new pair of Boss compacts – a booster and preamp, and an amp and cab emulator – could top and tail your pedalboard

Gas Supply

Our pick of the month’s most delectable and wallet-bothering new gear

Fretbuzz

A monthly look at must-hear artists from all corners of the guitar world, from the roots of their sound to the tracks that matter most

Albums

The month’s best guitar music – a hand-picked selection of the finest fretwork on wax

Tones Behind The Tracks

Steve Hackett dishes out a rich helping of prog on The Circus And The Nightwhale. We look behind the scenes with the ringmaster himself…

He Ain’t Neck Heavy…

Neville Marten wonders why some manufacturers, who otherwise do sophisticated, musically wonderful things, sometimes fall at the final fence

Taking Shape

Alex Bishop attempts to charm some timber into shape with little more than heat, water and perseverance

It’s A Wrap

After his year-long project comes to a close, Jamie Dickson shares the tone lessons – and more – from completing his first acoustic album

THREE TO GET READY

Useful Accessories For The Studio

Secondary Dominants

Richard Barrett embarks upon some jargon busting as he explains the mystery behind secondary dominants

Feedback

Your letters to the Guitarist editor. Drop us a line at guitarist@futurenet.com

JOHN SMITH

As singer-songwriter John Smith gears up to take his new album, The Living Kind, out on the road, he joins us to explain how a shift in his gear and writing process has had a profound effect on his music

TROY REDFERN

The one-man blues-rock maelstrom recounts the sorry tale of a long-lost Ibanez and reveals a fondness for Gold Foil pickups

THE NUMBERS GAME

It’s over 30 years since Yamaha’s huge-selling Pacifica 112 changed the low-end guitar world and became a near-perfect modding platform. Dave Burrluck pays homage

Huw Price’s Nitty Gritty

Machineheads

Coneheads

Over the past few years, speakers with a hemp cone have incr eased in popularity. Paul Gough of Zilla Cabs discusses their distinctive sound

RIVER DEEP

Mark Knopfler is at an interesting crossroads in his life and music. He’s just sold most of his guitar collection and he’s got a new album out that’s as deep in emotion and storycraft as its title suggests. As you’d expect, it’s also got some sublime guitar on it, though Knopfler himself believes his playing became “rusty” during the pandemic and is still in recovery. On the eve of the release of his new long-player, One Deep River, we join him to hear his perspectives on songcraft, gangland Britain in the 1960s, his enduring relationship with the Stratocaster, and the guitars that he couldn’t let go…

VINCE GILL

In the midst of the Eagles’ Long Goodbye tour, world-class guitarist and songwriter Vince Gill joins us to explain why “brevity and restraint” are all-important when playing for the song, how he was next in line for a reissue of Clapton’s ‘Beano’ guitar after EC himself, and why vintage guitars will always have his heart

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson

From urban blues maverick to ‘Superfly’ funkster, the life, career and enduring influence of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson deserves a long-overdue reexamination. Watson’s 40-plus-year career saw him negotiate his way through, arguably, the most explosive period in musical history and, unlike so many, he somehow managed to keep his ear to the ground and his music relevant to the times

IT’S ONLY ROCK ’N’ ROLL

Used decades apart by Keith Richards and Billy F Gibbons, Newman guitars have a unique place in rock history. And thanks to a new enterprise, they’re now being made in the UK. Are you sitting comfortably?

Blues Headlines

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

Hear It Here

PETER GREEN IN THE SKIES On the album’s