six string stories

Knuckle Puck‘s guitar team of Kevin Maida and Nick Casasanto started playing just like everyone else did. From being introduced to the instrument by a family member to learning all the Green Day and blink-182 riffs they could handle, their history is pretty normal. But it’s what the duo have done with Knuckle Puck that […]

For Paul Waggoner, the guitar powerhouse of Between The Buried and Me, playing guitar hasn’t always been about arpeggio-sweeping and soloing. His journey to becoming the six-string surgeon he is now has been paved with years of metronome training, scale practice and deconstructing songs in order to extract the fundamentals of melody and what it […]

Jeff Hickey may not describe himself as a virtuoso or a bad ass guitarist, but he definitely takes pride in being someone who just likes to make music. In this episode of APTV'S Six-String Stories, the Norma Jean axe-man reveals the riff that first sparked his interest in music, his trial-and-error approach to his instrument […]

We were lucky enough to sit down with guitarist Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan and learned all about his unique playing style and his earliest influences. He even had some advice for new guitar players everywhere: “You will find your own voice eventually. I think it's important for players to remember that the goal of […]

August Burns Red guitarist JB Brubaker chats with APTV about his origins as a guitarist, his style and more! Brubaker first picked up a guitar after he graduated high school. His graduation present to himself, in fact, was an Ibanez starter kit.  Hear the story of how he progressed from the kid who thought it […]

In this episode of Six-String Stories presented by Musicians Institute, Periphery’s Misha Mansoor, Mark Holcomb and Jake Bowen chat with APTV's Nick Major about their inspirations for playing guitar, the first songs they learned to play and some of the specifics about their actual guitars. Check it out! If you missed it, watch our last episode with […]

In this (two-part) episode of Six-String Stories, presented by Musicians Institute, Saves The Day’s Chris Conley and Arun Bali talk about their equipment and the sounds they explore with guitar pedals. Check it out! If you missed it, watch Part 1.

In this episode of Six-String Stories, presented by Musicians Institute, Saves The Day’s Chris Conley and Arun Bali talk about their inspirations for playing guitar, as well as Arun’s later addition to the band and what he brings to the table. Check it out! If you missed it, watch our last episode with Circa Survive guitarist Colin Frangicetto.

In this episode of Six-String Stories, Circa Survive guitarist Colin Frangicetto talks about his guitar-playing origins, self-education, pedals, textures, as well as his perspective as a former drummer and more. Check it out, and let us know your thoughts. Circa’s fifth LP, Descensus, is out now on Sumerian Records.  @colincirca

Lee Malia of Bring Me The Horizon talks about his first guitar, his inspirations, influences, playing style and more in part one of his APTV Six-String Stories guitarist profile with APTV Nashville correspondent Philip Obenschain.

Zac Eisenstein and Wayne Wildrik of Man Overboard tell us about their journeys as guitarists in our latest Six-String Stories video presented by Musicians Institute. The guys chat about their influences, how they like to keep it simple, the struggles that come with using classic gear, their current influences and more.

In the final part of our latest Six-String Stories sponsored by Musicians Institute, Nothing guitarists Brandon Setta and Dominic Palermo tell us about the circumstances that surrounded their first meeting and how writing for Nothing helped Palermo come out of a musical stasis brought on by depression following the death of his friend. The guys also talk about their musical influences—from […]

In part two of three of our latest Six-String Stories sponsored by Musicians Institute, Nothing guitarists Brandon Setta and Dominic Palermo talk about their gear and how sometimes less really is more when it comes to amps and pedals. They also tell us about their practice and songwriting process (when they get off the road and get a chance to do it.) […]

In part one of three of our latest Six-String Stories sponsored by Musicians Institute, Nothing guitarists Brandon Setta and Dominic Palermo tell us about their introductions to playing guitar, from the musicians and family members who inspired them to learn to the first times they picked up guitar (or, rather, took one down from a wall and […]

In the second segment of Six-String Stories, Tiny Moving Parts guitarist Dylan Mattheisen tells us about his journey as a guitarist with the story behind writing the song “Always Focused” and his songwriting process in general and how they translate live.  Watch part one Pre-order the band's forthcoming album, Pleasant Living, from Hello Merch. It's out on September 9, 2014 via Triple Crown […]

In this segment of Six-String Stories, Tiny Moving Parts guitarist Dylan Mattheisen tells us about how he chose guitar, from learning Blink-182 songs when he was twelve to becoming a songwriter and getting into different tunings and pedals. Check it out, and let us know what you think! Pre-order the band's forthcoming album, Pleasant Living, from Hello Merch. It's […]

Jake Mcelfresh, AKA Front Porch Step, takes us inside his journey as a guitarist in the first of our Warped Tour Acoustic Basement edition Six-String Stories, which focus on the differences and challenges of acoustic playing in comparison to our previous electric segments. Catch Front Porch Step this summer on Warped Tour on the Acoustic Basement […]

In this segment of Six-String Stories, Bayside guitarist Jack O’Shea tells us about his gear, influences, introduction to playing rock and punk music and how he rescues guitars from unhappy households. Check it out, and let us know what you think. O’Shea is nominated for Best Guitarist at the inaugural AP Music Awards. Bayside’s latest […]

La Dispute guitarist Chad Morgan-Sterenberg tells us about his introduction to playing, his gear, writing style and more.

So Many Ways guitarists Murphy Welch and Jason Milbank tell us about their introductions to guitar, their gear, style and techniques and teach us the lessons (and riffs) they've learned from hair metal.