Alexi Laiho, founding member and frontman of extreme metal act Children of Bodom (CoB), is known for incredible six-string momentum and melodic speed along with stern vocal strength. Besides CoB and side project Sinergy, he has played with Impaled Nazarene, Kykähullut, and Thy Serpent. Japan’s premier guitar magazine, Young Guitar, voted him Guitarist of the Year in 2005.
Born in Seattle on November 27, 1942, Johnny Allen Hendrix, better known the world over as Jimi Hendrix, was raised by his mother until his father was discharged by the military in 1945 and took custody over the future guitar legend.
Warren Haynes talks about the Allman Brothers, Gibson Guitars and Gov’t Mule.
Rocker Neal Schon handles his Gibson as naturally as if it were attached to the end of his hands. Having picked up his first guitar at age five, Neal was considered a musical prodigy and by age 15, was on the road with guitar legend Carlos Santana. After touring for a year, Neal’s musical direction was not meshing with his band mates, so he and fellow Santana alum Gregg Rolie began a new project — a band called Journey.
The veteran guitarist talks about his DVD Living Out of Time Live, Gear and his many musical outputs.
Masterful, eclectic and prolific are all words that can be used to begin to describe guitarist Steve Hackett. From a guitarist’s perspective, Hackett certainly ranks as a “grand master” who has completed his theoretical studies and coupled them with hands on performance experience. His journeyman level work with Genesis, which included Peter Gabriel (lead vocals), Phil Collins (drums and later, lead vocalist), Tony Banks (keyboards) and Mike Rutherford (guitar-vocals), helped in the evolution of the group that would eventually sell 150 million albums.
George Lynch has inserted himself into the annals of rock history with a career spanning over 30 years. Largely recognized for his Grammy nominated work with hard rock-metal group Dokken, George has also embarked on other collaborative and solo works to broaden his range of playing and creativity including Lynch Mob and Souls of We.
Born the grandson of immigrants in 1915, Lester William Polfuss exhibited an inborn Germanic talent for analytical thinking at a precociously early age.
Over the course of its forty-year history, Rush has emerged from it’s beginnings as a rock band to becoming an institution of rock culture. They’re one of the few bands that have not only survived for over four decades, but have done so with the same line-up of band members. That feat is a true anomaly in the turbulent and ego-driven world of rock music. With over thirty-million records sold worldwide, award-winning videos and legions of hardcore fans, perhaps the most impressive thing about the band’s career is the manner in which they have navigated their own course. While other bands worried about mainstream success, Rush focused on mastering their instruments and musicality to make the best records possible.
There are few guitarists alive today that are more accomplished or easily recognizable as Lee Ritenour. With a resume that reads like every budding guitarists wildest dream, Ritenour has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in music during his fifty years as a guitarist. After beginning his professional career at the age of sixteen,
