Bass Player LIVE! is back this year to bring players, manufacturers, and artists together in an intimate environment for hands-on access to the latest instruments, equipment and instruction on playing technique and application.

Hank 3 brought his touring outfit to San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom recently and tore the roof off the place, supporting the 4 cds of music he released on his new label Hank 3 Records earlier this month. A double CD of outlaw country called Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown, another of stoner/doom metal called Attention Deficit Domination, and one more that pairs speed metal with the vocals of auctioneers from around the country titled 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin.

For this week’s Friday Giveaway, we’re giving away a MXR Custom Badass ’78 Distortion and a Pedal Riser from our friends at StageTrix.

On an atypically sunny and warm day in Epsom, England, over 250 fans, winners of an online competition, lined up to see Slash for a rare meet and greet at the Dunlop-sponsored grand opening of GuitarGuitar’s newest location.

That’s right folks. For this week’s Friday Giveaway, we’re giving away a pack of Robert Trujillo Signature Bass Strings signed by Robert Trujillo, a Kirk Hammett Signature Pick Tin signed by Kirk Hammett, and a James “Papa Het” Hetfield Pick Tin signed by James Hetfield.

Nothing tops off summer in Seattle quite like the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, which is held once a year (this time from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5) at the Seattle Center: it’s the ultimate musical smörgåsbord, feeding an array of artists to desperately hungry eyes and ears.

Dunlop artists and avant-rockers Primus released Green Naugahyde this week, their first album in 11 years.

The legendary Johnny Winter will release his new studio album entitled Roots on September 27, 2011 via Megaforce Records. This album returns Johnny to his roots by paying homage to the iconic blues heroes whose pioneering music influenced Winter’s own signature sound and style. Roots is the follow up to his Grammy-nominated I’m a Blues Man.

Guitar International sat down with Five Finger Death Punch lead guitarist and Dunlop Strings artist Jason Hook to talk about his gear, his pre-5FDP days, and the new 5FDP album American Capitalists.