If the Fender Stratocaster is such a perfect design, why – wonders Dave Burrluck – is there a whole industry of aftermarket parts and pickups to improve it?

Two new lower-end, similarly priced Stratocasters cater for both vintage and more modern tastes and blur the line between Fender’s USA and Mexican manufacturing. Which one has your name on it?

There’s more than a whiff of swing in the air–and on the airwaves. Will Hosie explores the resurrection of one of music’s most gentlemanly genres

More aged nitro finishes and a new US-made line-up that pares back the modernisms. Are our tastes changing? Max Gutnik, chief product officer at FMIC, tells all

OLA STRANDBERG HAS helped spearhead something of a headless-guitar renaissance following the launch of his eponymous brand in 2012. He’s also brought an entirely fresh perspective on guitar design to

AN ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUE all electric guitarists should strive to master is the art of string bending, which can be used to create personally expressive, vocal-like sounds in unique ways. String bending