20th century Stanley Harris, a New York magazine publisher, launched
Guitar World magazine in July 1980. The magazine's debut issue featured bluesman
Johnny Winter on the cover and included pieces on the
Allman Brothers Band,
George Thorogood and
pedal steel guitars.
Guitar Worlds debut issue was only 82 pages, had a very small staff and budget, and was not published on a regular monthly schedule for about the first 12 years of its publication. By 1984,
GW began to grow, as ownership looked to expand into other markets and demographics. The same year,
Guitar Heroes, a one-shot guide to more than 100 of the greatest guitar players of all time, was published. In early 1992, this idea was revived as the semiannual
Guitar World Legends, but with each issue conceived as a tribute to an artist or genre. As former editor-in-chief Brad Tolinski wrote in the magazine's 40th-anniversary issue, "It was a decent start, but the design and editorial content was still a bit lackluster. If you compared it to an amp,
GWs first few issues were a sturdy 40-watt tweed combo, when what Harris really wanted was a row of 100-watt Marshalls." Dennis Page, an advertising rep, hired a new editor-in-chief, Noe Goldwasser, also known as Noe Gold; Gold made inroads with metal music fans, printing the first of many cover stories with
Eddie Van Halen. He edited several landmark issues in the magazine's first decade, including
GWs fifth anniversary issue in 1985, which featured a cover-to-cover celebration of
Jimi Hendrix; and a July 1986 tribute to
Led Zeppelin's
Jimmy Page, featuring a 15-page interview with the reclusive legend, along with early note-for-note transcriptions of Page solos to
Stairway to Heaven and
Rock and Roll. When Gold left the magazine in 1988, he was replaced by editor-in-chief Joe Bosso and executive editor Matt Resnicoff. The two had divergent tastes in music, with Bosso preferring to cover rock 'n' roll and Resnicoff preferring jazz-fusion, leading to a split approach in the magazine's coverage. As publisher Page said, "For a time the magazine lost its way. We started including a lot of jazz, which our readers didn't care about. I knew the key was for us to get younger, not older." In 1989, Tolinski was asked to step into the magazine's lead role. "One glance at the May and June 1989 issues sums up the story," Tolinski wrote in 2020. "On one cover, a rather nervous-looking
Allan Holdsworth hides timidly behind his
Steinberger guitar, and on the next,
Zakk Wylde explodes with pure animal fury while the headline screams SPECIAL REPORT! THE YOUNG GUNS OF METAL.
GW went from black and white to full-on Technicolor."
21st century Tolinski remained with the magazine until April 2015, when he was replaced by Jeff Kitts, who had been on
GWs editorial staff since the early 1990s. Kitts was replaced by Damian Fanelli, who has been
GWs editor-in-chief since June 2018; Fanelli had been with the magazine since 2011, originally as its online managing editor, later becoming its managing editor. In July 2015, a photo of
Guitar World annual "Gear Guide" featuring
Deerhoof's Satomi Matsuzaki in a
bikini placed next to a copy of
She Shreds, a magazine dedicated to female and non-binary guitarists, went viral on the internet. Following criticism from the magazine and its readers,
Guitar World publisher, New Bay Media, announced in April 2016 that it would stop using women in bikinis on the covers of their annual "Gear Guides". This practice was further called out by
St. Vincent (Annie Clark), who appeared on the cover of the magazine's January 2017 issue in a bikini t-shirt. Clark was the first woman to appear on the cover since Joan Jett in May 2015. ==Sister magazines ==