It’s quite ironic that he wonderful Gibson “Firebird” Guitar is celebrating its 50th Birthday, especially since I just started doing my new “Slide Guitar Summit” album, and the first sessions were cutting a tune with none other than JOHNNY WINTER!

Few bands are more worthy of a prime spot in the pantheon of rock and roll pioneers than Fanny is. As the first all-female rock group signed to a major label, Fanny blazed a hard-won trail at the dawn of the ‘70s, through which the likes of The Runaways, The Go-Go’s and The Bangles could follow.

Four decades and a couple generations later, the Beatles’ 1967 opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has only grown in stature. At the BBC, where one of the album’s signature tracks, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” was once banned during the time of the album’s release, an ensemble representing the elite of contemporary Brit pop now pays tribute to its enduring influence. Stateside, Cheap Trick, friends and orchestra performed the album in its entirety at two sold-out Hollywood Bowl shows, and the album is cited by artists of all genres and backgrounds—from the Flaming Lips to the Beach Boys—as a definitive influence...

Bernie Marsden is something of an unsung legend of British rock guitar. He’s played with U.F.O, Paice Ashton and Lord, written/collaborated with Joe Bonamassa, and famously played with Whitesnake 1978-’82.

“Koss” never achieved mainstream acclaim like fellow British bluesmen Eric Clapton, Peter Green or Alvin Lee, but he was arguably equally as talented. The tragic reason Kossoff is often forgotten is that he died so awfully young – at just 25, after a prolonged battle with medication abuse.

Miking an amplifier to get great guitar sounds in the studio seems like a simple proposition. Get a great guitar sound, a good reliable microphone, and let it rip, right?

Celtic punk-rock band Dropkick Murphys released their debut full-length 15 years ago, and they’re not slowing down at all. The Quincy, Mass.-based guys unleashed their eighth studio album, Signed and Sealed in Blood, in January, and the album debuted at a sky-high #9 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Seven string guitars are a lot of fun. Personally I'm a big seven-stringer - I love the extended high range as well as the deeper lows. But there's usually a trade-off with sevens. It can be hard to adjust to a seven-string because you're adding an entire string that forces you to reorient yourself on the fretboard and over the picking area of the strings.

Billy Gibbons, Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr. and the Dixie Chicks are just a few of the high-profile artists who’ve relied on guitar technician Tom Oatley for their instrument set-ups and modifications. Based in Austin, Oatley’s Guitar Garage has long been the go-to place for expert repairs and advice, for professionals and amateur players alike.

David Bowie’s career was not exactly skyrocketing in early 1969. He’d already been through several bands that failed to make a dent in the British charts or the London clubs, and his 1967 debut album David Bowie was a risky pop effort that missed the mark. The song “Rubber Band,” for example, used a tuba as lead instrument, and electric guitar was entirely absent – just as Eric Clapton and Cream and Jimi Hendrix were riding to superstardom on the cutting edge of six-string rock, and The Who’s Pete Townshend was cranking his amps to 11. To make matters worse, Bowie’s greatest recognition to date was via the commercial he made for the Lyons Maid ice cream brand, later countered by a rejection from the makers of Kit Kat candy bars.