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GALLERY: Riot Fest 2016

See what guitars and basses the punks, metalheads, and hardcore rockers used during the Windy City’s other 3-day festival.

Brand New’s Vincent Accardi

Vincent’s love for Cyclones is pretty prevalent (check out our Rig Rundown with him where he put a Cyclone neck on a vintage Telecaster) and he’s added another to as his stash as he’s seen here wailing on a 2000s Fender Cyclone during “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t.”

Montana’s own Evel Knievel

If artists aren’t allowed to take risks, and even fail, great art will never be made. Need proof? Check Picasso, Hendrix, Monk, and Led Zeppelin.

In sixth grade, I went to a strict Catholic school. When you have an Italian-Irish mother, that’s just part of the deal. The nuns had the look and temperament of the defensive line of the ’70s Oakland Raiders. Corporal punishment was harsh, swift, and plentiful–particularly toward boys—and we all feared them. All but one second grader. I can’t remember his first name; nobody used it, because his last name was Knievel. His uncle was Evel Knievel, the greatest and perhaps only celebrity ever to come from my home state, Montana. On the playground, we would watch in awe as this wild Knievel kid raced by us, nuns chasing in an awkward, sluggish pursuit as he knocked kids over, dust, books, and gravel flying behind his path of terror. This kid was fearless. It was truly inspiring to watch.

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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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Kemper updated the entire product range introducing the all-new Kemper Profiler MK 2 Series. More Power. More Flexibility.

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The Billy Idol guitarist rides his Knaggs into Nashville.

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