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
Ritchie Blackmore Plans to Rejoin Deep Purple Onstage Tonight — 33 Years After Walking Away
Thirty-three years after his final departure, Ritchie Blackmore says he plans to step onto a Deep Purple stage again — for one song, one night, and perhaps one final glimpse of a guitar chemistry that helped invent hard rock.
Mark Knopfler at 77: Why Playing the Right Notes Still Won't Make You Sound Like Him
Mark Knopfler turns 77 today, and his playing remains one of the hardest things in rock to imitate. Not because the notes are difficult — because almost none of what makes it sound like him is written down.
The Last 10%: Why You Can Copy a Famous Guitarist’s Entire Rig and Still Miss the Tone
You bought the guitar, the amp, and the pedals — so why doesn’t it sound right? The last 10 percent of guitar tone is the most important part, and it’s almost never about the gear list.
Eddie Van Halen: The Man Who Took the Electric Guitar Apart — and Rebuilt What It Could Be
From an immigrant kid learning piano by ear in Pasadena to the homemade guitar that changed an industry, the impossible sound of "Eruption," 5150, the Brown Sound and a legacy that still defines electric guitar: this is the complete story of Edward Van Halen.
Joe Bonamassa Says Guitar Culture’s “Armchair Quarterbacks” Are Killing the Fun — and Points to Nick Jonas as a Warning
The blues-rock heavyweight says online guitar culture has become obsessed with judging players, ranking performances and tearing musicians apart over mistakes. For Bonamassa, the infamous backlash against Nick Jonas shows just how ugly it can get.
The 20 Greatest Bass Riffs of All Time
The low-end lines that made songs instantly recognizable — from John Deacon and Chris Squire to Flea, Geddy Lee and John Entwistle.
Neal Schon: The Guitarist Who Made Arena Rock Sing
From Santana prodigy to the melodic engine behind Journey, Neal Schon built a guitar vocabulary where blues, fusion, fire and unforgettable melody could all exist in the same solo.
20 Easy Guitar Riffs That Sound Way Harder Than They Are
Great riffs are not necessarily complicated riffs. Some of rock's most recognisable guitar moments are built from two strings, three chords and a rhythm that refuses to let go. Here are twenty of them — and how to make each one sound like the record.
The Riffs They Almost Threw Away: 10 Classic Guitar Parts That Nearly Never Made the Record
A placeholder for a horn section. A warm-up exercise treated as a joke. A microphone left in the wrong place. Ten of the most recognisable guitar parts in rock arrived by accident, argument or last-minute panic.
Do Guitarists Ever Get Tired of Playing Their Biggest Hits?
Some players have performed the same 24 bars more than three thousand times. Boredom is the obvious assumption — and, according to the guitarists who actually do it for a living, mostly the wrong one.
Frank Zappa Was a Much Better Guitarist Than Most People Realize
Strip away the satire, the sprawling discography and the sheer weirdness, and you're left with one of rock's most individual lead guitarists. A guitarist's look at Zappa's phrasing, rhythmic displacement, tone and the solos that prove it.
The Anatomy of a Perfect Guitar Solo: Why the Greatest Solos Never Get Old
Millions of guitarists can play more notes than David Gilmour plays in the opening phrases of Comfortably Numb. Almost none of them could have written it. A working guitarist's breakdown of melody, phrasing, tension, dynamics and tone — and how to use all of it when you write your own solo.
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