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GALLERY: Rock on the Range 2011

See some of today''s biggest rock guitarists and the axes they used for this year''s festival, including Mark Tremonti, Zakk Wylde, Synyster Gates & Zacky Vengeance, and more.

"Grammy Award winner and founding member of both Creed and Alter Bridge, hereуs Tremonti playing his PRS Mark Tremonti Signature Model."

Though Lou Reed seemed to only use a handful of chords, his shrewd right-hand strumming created limitless rhythmic variations.

Beginner to Intermediate

Beginner to Intermediate

  • Focus on syncopation.
  • Add muted strums to enhance your rhythm playing.
  • Learn how to modify complex rhythmic patterns into smaller, more comprehensible figures.

Though usually more lauded for his lyrics than his guitar playing, Lou Reed had a distinctive style of strumming that can make replication a challenge and seemingly impossible for beginners to comprehend. With a combination of syncopations and muted strums, Reed’s rhythm guitar—from his time with the Velvet Underground to his solo career—has a groove and feel that all guitar players can learn from.

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Stringjoy has introduced the Ariel Posen Signature String Set, a heavy-gauge Nickel Wound set designed in close collaboration with acclaimed slide guitarist and singer-songwriter Ariel Posen.

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Nashville luthier and guitar tech Dave Johnson shows us the baker's dozen of tools he thinks any guitar picker requires to be a guitar fixer.

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Paul Reed Smith cradles one of his company’s Charcoal Phoenix limited-edition guitars in front of a PRS Sonzera amp.

The storied guitar builder reflects on his dozen months sharing his experience, knowledge, and perspective with PG’s readers.

Over the past year, I’ve written a series of articles in Premier Guitar going over some of my, and our industry’s, views of guitar making. You can find all of them all online (and for those reading this online, the articles are collected here). What I am going to attempt to do for this final piece is boil down each of these articles to a “sort of” conclusion. I have enjoyed the process of writing and editing each one. For the most part, it’s been a lot of fun. So:

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