LATE-FIFTIES OIL CAN echoes are fascinating pieces of gear. Imagine a rotating disk submerged in oil and built-in pickups that work in tandem to recreate the delay. Sounds a little wacky, right? But s

ON THE SURFACE, guitar trends in 1986 looked downright wild and perverse — a weird parade of shred-happy virtuosos, anthemic power pop heroes, dirtbag metalheads and eccentric alt-rock outsiders. But

Thirty years after its release, Billy Corgan looks back at the making of The Smashing Pumpkins ’ era-defining big, bold, bombastic masterpiece Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness .

VAN HALEN WAS the world’s biggest rock band at the beginning of 1985. Their 1984 album had sold more than five million copies in the U.S., reaching Number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (their hi

THE RICKENBACKER 360/12 might not have been the very first 12-string electric guitar to appear on the market — it was preceded by the 12-string necks found on the doubleneck Gibson EDS-1275 and Strato

A STAPLE OF many great country and country rock songs — and, in the hands of Jimmy Page and Albert Lee, rock songs — is the sound of the B-bender. For those unfamiliar, a B-bender is a string-pulling