Innehållsförteckning för November 2025 från Guitar World

I DON’T HAVE 45 years’ worth of Guitar World covers sitting right in front of me at this very moment, but — outside of a 1983 Jaco Pastorius cover — I really can’t think of any other non-guitar-playing artist who has appeared on GW ’s cover alone — without a guitarist in sight — except for Ozzy Osbourne. And, as I pointed out just a few issues ago, Ozzy appeared on our cover even before his guitar-playing Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi did. Why is this so, you ask? Because Ozzy loved the guitar and respected guitarists. He realized the importance and value of the guitarist in a band. He plucked guitarists from obscurity and gave us our stars, from Randy Rhoads to Zakk Wylde. And as we’ll see, he…

Guitarist Gilby Clarke Guitar 1969 Fender Telecaster GW Cover Date November 1992 This interview June 2025 Photographer Robert John Q How’d you get this guitar? I worked at Hogan’s House of Music in Hawthorne, California, when I was younger. I bought it there. I paid $300 for it in 1980. Q Did you modify it? And what sort of rig did you pair it with? It was modified by Jim Foote at Music Works in Lawndale, California. I had it painted black, and they added binding along with a 1959 Gibson PAF pickup. Then I found the pickup in a drawer, but it wasn’t working, so they gave it to me. I sent it to Seymour Duncan to rewind it to the original specs. And, of course, jumbo frets were…

THE GENESIS OF Quadvium — the extreme fusion project from fretless bass visionaries Steve DiGiorgio (Testament, Death, Sadus) and Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Obscura, Pestilence) — dates back to the mid-’00s with the two slippery rhythm-stringers excitedly talking shop after meeting at a European metal fest. They quickly developed a bond, and over the years — whether reconnecting in their respective home bases in California’s Bay Area or the Netherlands — they started toying with the idea of forming a fretless fraternity to transform the game forevermore. Two decades into their friendship, they’ve charted a fresh course as Quadvium. After conceptualizing the project over Zoom calls, the pair linked up in an Amsterdam rehearsal space with Pestilence drummer Yuma van Eekelen to start fleshing out new music. That’s when the bassists…

WITHOUT A SINGLE doubt, the most familiar character in heavy metal, the late Ozzy Osbourne, was presented to the public as a madman, a maniac and a court jester whose life was a constant ricochet from one chaotic episode to another. There was a degree of truth to this exaggerated persona — in his younger years, Ozzy was definitely prone to extreme actions when under the influence of alcohol or drugs — but he also earned our sympathy for his flaws, our admiration for his music and our respect for his talent for recognizing guitar genius. Born John Michael Osbourne in the war-damaged suburb of Aston in Birmingham, England, on December 3, 1948, Ozzy (as we’ll call him from now on) was one of six children to Jack and Lillian…

FEW VOCALISTS IN history are as synonymous with guitar heroics as Ozzy Osbourne. Starting with Tony Iommi and somehow also connecting with Randy Rhoads, Brad Gillis, Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde and so many other greats (see page 52), when it comes to six-stringers, Ozzy knew how to pick ’em. But what about the coulda-beens, shoulda-beens and never-beens? You know — the “close, but no cigar” gang? So many top-notch guitarists have told tales of auditioning for Ozzy and, for one reason or another, not being the right fit. Below, in the spirit of “almost,” GW dials it back to 13 players who were ever-so-nearly the apple of Ozzy’s ever-fickle eye. George Lynch Auditioned in 1979 and 1982 The Washington-born future Dokken star auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne not once, but…

WHEN PRS PRODUCED the Silver Sky for John Mayer, it nearly broke the internet. For some it was simply a “Stratocaster” with the wrong headstock, while PRS maintained it was a complete re-tooling of a classic. A little while later, the debate was stoked when a more affordable SE version of the Silver Sky appeared. Fast forward to 2023, and another Fender classic was reimagined as the NF 53, which was launched simultaneously with the similarly styled Myles Kennedy signature model. Now — about halfway through the brand’s 40th-anniversary year — PRS has finally launched the SE NF 53. Offered in three solid colors, the single-cutaway T-style influence is clear, but the SE NF 53 is no clone. The materials might ape the original — a swamp ash body and…

WHEN I AM composing and arranging music, I like to think as an orchestrator. As the guitarist, I try to represent just about everything that’s in the arrangement — the drum syncopations, horn parts, keyboards, etc. — in multiple guitar parts. I might start with a bass-like theme, along the lines of FIGURE 1. Playing in the key of G, I begin on a low G and then playing a G one octave higher on the last 16th note of beat 1. After a 16th rest on beat 2, the high G is played again, followed by E to F in eighth notes. I’ve now established a “16th-note grid” that serves to represent the rhythmic syncopation of the music. My next inclination would be to add a complimentary part above…

LAST MONTH, I talked about how I devised the primary riffs in the title track to my 2023 album Hard Wired, which is played in drop D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). I’d now like to share some of the varied approaches and techniques I use in the song’s breakdown and solo sections. One of the cool things about the breakdown section is that I take the opportunity to interpret the chord progression in different ways. The first thing I do is switch things up by establishing a progression of D - G - F. But instead of playing straight major chords or root-5th power chords, I like to bring in the sound of open strings to help broaden the harmony, as well as the…

“WONDERING WHY” WORDS AND MUSIC BY BRANDON COLEMAN, ANDREW NIX AND DAN COUCH. COPYRIGHT © 2022 MUSIC BY BODACIOUS PUBLISHING, LAWD HAMERCY MUSIC AND SONGS FROM THE COUCH. ALL RIGHTS FOR MUSIC BY BODACIOUS AND LAWD HAMERCY MUSIC ADMINISTERED BY WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC.…

READER ART OF THE MONTH If you’ve created a drawing, painting or sketch of your favorite guitarist and would like to see it in an upcoming issue of Guitar World, email GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com with a .jpg or screenshot of the image. And (obviously...), please remember to include your name! DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH Steve Schnepf HOMETOWN: Niagara Falls, NY GUITARS: Fender Player Stratocaster, Fender American Standard Telecaster, Fender Player II Telecaster, Gretsch G5220 Electromatic Jet (all left-handed) SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: The Marketts “Out of Limits,” the Shadows “Apache,” the Ventures “Diamond Head” GEAR I WANT MOST: Lefty Fender Jaguar or Mustang Dave Lynch AGE: 67 HOMETOWN: Tampa, FL GUITARS: Aria Pro II PE 180, Greco J-115 Johnny Smith SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: The Beatles “Yesterday,” plus “Nuages,” “All of You,”…

ALL’S BEEN QUIET for several years on Jake E. Lee’s proverbial Western Front. The guitarist has taken extended breaks before, like the one after the demise of his beloved Badlands in 1993. Still, after forming Red Dragon Cartel in 2013 and reeling off two well-regarded records in 2014’s Red Dragon Cartel and 2018’s Patina, the thought was that Lee was back to stay. Covid put a pin in that, as it did with most sectors of the world. Making matters worse is that Lee suffers from particularly nasty arthritis in his right hand, leaving him with “basically no cartilage.” That’s painful, but probably not nearly as painful as a life-threatening incident in October 2024, when he was shot multiple times while walking his dog near his home in Las Vegas.…

MUSIC FANS KNEW Ozzy Osbourne as the Prince of Darkness or maybe even the Messiah of Metal, but among the hard-rock guitar community, he’ll always be remembered as the Godfather of Heavy Guitar. Thanks to his impeccable taste, discerning ear and a perfect 1,000 batting record when choosing great guitarists for his bands, Ozzy introduced the world to an incredible roster of phenomenal players that he hand-picked from the underground and boldly brought into the mainstream during his 45-plus years as a solo artist. This is a big reason that Guitar World — a publication for guitar players — frequently interviewed and featured Ozzy on its covers and is celebrating him today, even though he never played the instrument himself. The amount of great guitar music that Ozzy gifted metal…

IF ONLY HALF the rumors about him are true, Ozzy Osbourne should be dead. Yet, after 21 years of twisted public behavior, the man who brought you songs like “Paranoid,” “Bark at the Moon” and “Children of the Grave” looks incredibly healthy and ready to take on the world. Ozzy recently celebrated more than 20 years in the business by polishing off a live greatest-hits EP, Just Say Ozzy, and is currently at work on his next studio metal masterpiece. In the conversation that follows, Ozzy thoughtfully recalls what made each of his great guitarists special, and elaborates his criteria for choosing a guitarist, his audition process and his theory on why it's good to be bad. Let’s start by looking at your past guitarists. How did you find Randy…

ANOTHER OF THE many Gibson guitars that I love (are there any that I don’t?) is the ES-350. This is a semi-hollow “jazz box” type of guitar, deeper than a ES-335 but still kind of skinny when compared to a true jazz box, like an L5 or a Super 400. There are ES-350s that pre-dated this one and were full-bodied, with P90 pickups. In 1955, the guitar was redesigned with the thinner body among other specification alterations. The up-market guitar to the ES-350 was the ES-5, made famous by T-Bone Walker, later to be known as the Switchmaster, which had three P90s and a big toggle switch that said “1 2 3 ALL,” meaning neck, middle, bridge or all three pickups on at once. All pickups all the time! This,…

COHEED AND CAMBRIA “Blind Side Sonny” GUITARIST TRAVIS STEVER kicks off this driving, uptempo rock song with a punchy, syncopated lead riff in the key of D minor, playing in the 10th-position D minor pentatonic “box” and aggressively digging into his note attacks with both hands (see bars 1-12). To keep things tight sounding, he applies a heavy palm mute (P.M.) on his low strings. On the studio recording, the muted “X” notes on the 6th string, which aren’t intentional, sound low F notes, which is surprising, considering that the riff is performed in standard tuning. It’s possible that those in-between notes might have been digitally pitch shifted up a half step (from E to F) in the mixing stage. In any case, when playing the song live, Travis avoids…

IF PARADISE LOST guitarist Gregor Mackintosh gets his wish, music fans might be adding the gloom-driven sounds of his band’s Ascension LP to their Christmas playlists this year, perhaps alongside Yuletide staples like Michael Bublé and Bing Crosby. The throughline might not be readily apparent between those crooners and the U.K. metal veterans; few holly-jolly moments exist across the latter’s new album, where vocalist Nick Holmes uses death-growls and a gothic baritone to explore themes of war and the interminable struggle of life. Nevertheless, Mackintosh suggests the melancholic melody lines he brings to Ascension pieces like “Salvation” and “Serpent on the Cross” chime through the speakers like a peal of church bells on a crisp December morning, which he argues makes the quintet’s 17th full-length “a Christmassy, winter-type thing.” “It…

ALTHOUGH HIS PLAYING on Ozzy Osbourne’s Bark at the Moon (1983) and The Ultimate Sin (1986) is beloved, Jake E. Lee pulls no punches when it comes to what he feels was his finest hour: 1989’s Badlands. “I thought it was perfect,” Lee tells Guitar World. “There was nothing wrong with it. I didn’t know if it would sell, but I knew it was something I would be proud of for the rest of my life.” Lee’s love for Badlands isn’t singular. There’s a legion of devotees who feel it was his best work. The album’s greatness doesn’t just come from the sum of its parts, aka the great songs carried out by Lee, vocalist Ray Gillen, drummer Eric Singer and bassist Greg Chaisson, but because Lee’s musical aspiration had…

BELOW, ZAKK WYLDE — who shared innumerable on- and off-stage experiences with Ozzy (and almost as many Guitar World covers) — looks back on his Wylde ride with the Prince of Darkness. More than any other guitarist — except maybe Tony Iommi — your Ozzy relationship seemed familial as well as musical. That’s how I’ve always looked at it. Ozzy is the godfather of our oldest son. Whether I was playing with him or not, regardless of where we were musically, if Sharon called me and my wife and said, “Can you watch the house while we’re on a business trip?” I’d do it. It’s like, “If you need me to bring milk and eggs over, I’ll do it.” Was your chemistry immediate? Yes. It’s like with all your friends…

AN ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL element in blues guitar is the turnaround. It is a basic function of blues music that the turnaround happens at the end of the progression and flips it over back to the beginning of the form. When playing a standard 12-bar blues, the turnaround occurs in the last two bars, 11 and 12, as the tonic chord (rooted in the key you’re in) moves to the V (five chord), which then resolves back to the tonic in bar 1 of the next 12-bar chorus. When playing a single-note blues solo, players sometimes forget about where the turnaround is and how important it is to make reference to it melodically. Playing these turnarounds as part of your solos will tie everything together and ensure that it sounds like…