Christopher Scapelliti

Christopher Scapelliti uses guitars, songs and defining career moments as his way into stories, drawing out first-person memories that tie instruments to the turning points of rock history. He is editor-in-chief of GuitarPlayer.com and a former editor of Guitar Player, a long-running guitar magazine founded in 1967. Over a career in guitar journalism, he has led and written for multiple guitar titles, co-authored a book on notable guitar collections and helped launch a magazine dedicated to guitar-focused lifestyle coverage. His work combines long experience in the guitar press with a clear, accessible style that centers musicians’ voices and the specific instruments and decisions that shaped their sound.

How math solved the Beatles' greatest guitar mystery

Scapelliti shows a particular interest in the Beatles and uses their catalog to explore the intersection of storytelling, analysis and guitar craft. In one feature on an early recording of “Norwegian Wood,” he highlights the role of the sitar and how its arrival marked a moment when a single instrument helped redirect rock music.

In another piece on “the Beatles’ greatest guitar mystery,” he follows the work of a researcher who used mathematics to decode the notes that comprise a famous chord, framing the story as both a technical puzzle and a chapter in guitar lore. His author bio also notes interviews with Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott, underscoring his habit of anchoring Beatles coverage in detailed conversations with the people who were in the room when these sounds were created.

Together, these pieces show a reporter who treats classic songs as problems to be solved and stories to be retold, with guitars and recording techniques at the center of the narrative.

The song that foretold the breakup of CCR

Much of his recent work turns on classic rock and singer-songwriter histories, focusing on single songs as keys to larger band narratives.

In an interview with John Fogerty, he revisits the Creedence Clearwater Revival single that “foretold” the group’s breakup, using Fogerty’s own recollections to connect one track to the band’s internal tensions and eventual split. He has Don McLean describe the death that haunted the writing of “American Pie,” framing the acoustic hit around the personal loss that sits behind its lyrics. In coverage of Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash, he recounts how a recording session was driven by a personal ultimatum, tracing how a songwriter’s insistence shaped a landmark performance. His archive also includes pieces on Rita Coolidge’s work with Bob Dylan, again using firsthand anecdotes to link lyric changes and studio choices to broader shifts in an artist’s career.

Across these stories, Scapelliti returns to a pattern: one song, one decisive moment and a musician talking through how that moment changed their trajectory.

“There was this terrible smell of fuel”

Scapelliti often works in an oral-history mode, especially when covering loss and risk in the guitar world. In his piece with Sharon Osbourne, he revisits the plane crash that killed Randy Rhoads, letting Osbourne describe sensory details - fuel, fire, shock - and building the article around her memory of how the guitarist’s life ended during an Ozzy Osbourne tour.

He has Lenny Kravitz walk through the desperate deal that gave him his number-one guitar, capturing how a financial crisis, a parked car and a bundle of instruments converged into the story of a career-defining instrument. With Bob Weir, he recounts the story of the guitar Weir took from George Benson, using the anecdote to explore questions of ownership, mentorship and the way players bond with specific instruments.

These pieces share a structure: he sets up a vivid, sometimes dramatic anecdote and then lets the musician narrate, with the guitar itself functioning as both prop and protagonist.

Thomann sues Fender over cease-and-desist

Alongside interviews and retrospectives, Scapelliti covers the business and legal currents that shape the guitar ecosystem.

In a report on Thomann’s lawsuit against Fender over a cease-and-desist order, he details how a major retailer positions the case as a fight on behalf of smaller manufacturers who lack the financial and legal means to respond to such challenges, framing the dispute as a test of power in the guitar market. In a feature on a Universal Audio Apollo interface promotion, he draws on his own home studio workflow to explain how specific hardware can streamline recording for guitarists, tying a sales event to practical changes in day-to-day music-making.

His news coverage also follows ongoing disputes and reconciliations among high-profile rock figures, including Sammy Hagar’s response to Alex Van Halen’s criticism and the reunion of David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen after more than a decade apart.

Recent pieces on Roger Waters’ remarks about Ed Sheeran and Macklemore show a similar interest in how public statements and controversies reverberate through the guitar and rock communities. His background as co-author of a book on important guitar collections, founding editor of a guitar lifestyle title and a long-time editor at several guitar magazines underpins this mix of industry, instrument and player-focused reporting. A personal collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers further supports the depth of his engagement with gear and sound design, which informs the way he writes about equipment and technology for working guitarists.