Days of future past

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

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

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

FOR THOSE WITH even a passing interest in the amp-modeling world, the Line 6 Helix needs no introduction. Released in 2015, it is arguably one of the pieces of gear that made digital amplifier modelin

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 .

When I recently showed a cassette tape to my 11-year-old daughter, she looked genuinely baffled. ‘What is it?’ she asked. My first thought was that I’d failed as a parent, but then I realised there’s