Patrick Lawlor
Founder & Editor-in-Chief · The Guitar Plugged
Professional guitarist with over 20 years of playing experience. Retail gear specialist at Guitar Center. Content creator with 50,000+ followers across social media. Founder of The Guitar Plugged.
Why I'm qualified to write about guitars
20+ Years Playing
Two decades of hands-on guitar experience across rock, blues, metal, and acoustic styles.
Retail Gear Expertise
Leadership roles at Guitar Center — thousands of guitars and amps handled, demoed, and sold.
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Created The Guitar Plugged to deliver honest, experience-driven guitar coverage independent of algorithmic content farms.
Content Creator
50,000+ followers across Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Millions of combined video views.
Brand Collaborations
Fender, DistroKid, TrueFire, Card Chords, Enya — partnerships built on real product knowledge.
Specialties
Classic rock, guitar gear, tone analysis, instructional content for lead playing.
ARTICLES BY PATRICK
Yamaha Unveils Matteo Mancuso's Signature Revstar — and It's Built for More Than Fusion
The $1,599.99 RS20MM brings Mancuso's custom Revstar design to a production guitar, with DiMarzio PAF pickups, five-way switching and a chambered body.
PRS and Land Rover Team Up for Eight New John Mayer Silver Sky Colors
Eight new Silver Sky finishes drawn from Land Rover Defender paint jobs, hand-picked by John Mayer — including one color that has been sitting in his own driveway for nearly two decades.
Donner's HLX-500 Wants to Make Headless Guitars Affordable
A 24-fret, HSS headless guitar for around $330–$350. Donner's HLX-500 is a budget build with premium ambitions.
Gary Clark Jr. Brings Crossroads Home: Why This Weekend in Austin Belongs to Him
Antone's co-owner, Gibson signature artist and Austin's bridge between old blues and new — Gary Clark Jr. plays Crossroads in his own city this weekend. Here's why it matters.
Inside Steve Vai's Hydra: The Triple-Neck Monster Built to Play an Entire Song by Itself
Seven-string, 12-string, 3/4 bass, 13 harp strings, sustainer, piezo, MIDI and half-fretless necks — the Hydra isn't a gimmick. It's an arrangement tool. Here's how Vai plays it.
When Guitars Ruled September: Seven Songs From the '70s Charts
Every September in the 1970s sounded a little different. Put the decade's September hits side by side and one thread comes through: the guitar could be a hook, a rhythm engine, a burst of noise or the sound carrying an entire song.
Chad Gilbert, New Found Glory's Guitarist and Pop-Punk's Quiet Engine, Dies at 45
New Found Glory's founding guitarist died on September 20 after a years-long cancer battle. He was 45 — and he spent nearly three decades writing the riffs that taught a generation what pop-punk guitar sounds like.
The 10 Greatest Guitar Renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner”
From Jimi Hendrix's controlled chaos at Woodstock to modern performances by H.E.R., Gary Clark Jr. and Jack White, these guitarists turned America's national anthem into something deeply personal.
Brian May Never Wanted a Fender or Gibson — So He Built the Guitar That Changed Rock
Brian May's latest comments about Fender, Gibson and the guitar he actually wanted reveal something deeper about the Red Special: Queen's unmistakable guitar sound may exist precisely because the instrument May needed simply didn't exist.
Gibson's DES Series Is the Most Aggressive Modern Gibson in Years
Six body shapes, Ghost Burst nitro, Super Split Block inlays, compound-radius ebony boards and Alnico 8 humbuckers. Gibson has built a limited run aimed squarely at the modern technical player — and priced it accordingly.
Slash Has Used a Talk Box Since He Was 16. Now MXR Has Built One Specifically for Him
The new MXR Slash Signature Talk Box takes one of rock guitar's strangest and most expressive effects, traces it back through Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck and Aerosmith, and rebuilds it around the unmistakable voice of Slash.
The 10 Greatest Guitar Harmonies of All Time
One guitar states the melody. The second one changes its emotional weight. We rank the ten harmonized guitar moments that define the twin-lead sound.
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