Why guitar?

Charlie Wilkins explores why guitarists crave sustain, how to get it and why some guitars sustain better than others

Fender’s Custom Shop had a precarious start in the mid-1980s, but the story of its formative years is full of big ideas, some bizarre instruments, and a queue of famous guitarists

THERE ARE VARYING degrees of guitar hero, but Carlos Santana is a name you’d expect to find near the top of any list. Like Jimi Hendrix, Brian May or Slash, Santana has transcended guitar music and pe

IN 2001, ROBERT Keeley, a top-flight engineer out of Oklahoma City, founded Keeley Electronics. His goal was — and still is — simple, and he explains it like so: “If a player can become more expressiv

ACOUSTIC GUITARISTS OFTEN get left out of the world of effects. However, about a decade ago, ToneWoodAmp appeared. It was a dedicated device that enabled acoustic players to enjoy effects through thei

Nearly 40 years on from the Custom Shop’s inception, its creations are more ambitious than ever. Find out how the team walks the tightrope between ‘canon’ and ‘cannot’, and where its guitars are heading next