About Killer Guitar Rigs
Killer Guitar Rigs Magazine is an online resource for everything guitar, from music news to gear reviews to interviews with your favorite artists – we have something for every genre and skill level.
Who Are We?
Killer Guitar Rigs (KGR) was created to serve as a comprehensive repository of guitar-related information, buying guides, and gear reviews. With a mission to be the best in the business, our objective is to become the ultimate reader-supported free resource for students and guitar enthusiasts around the world.
What do we do?
We aim to create the best and most trustworthy content like buying guides, how-to articles and gear reviews that make it simple for you to find the right product for your skill level and expertise.
We also want to be the place you go to find new guitarists and new music, and we do this through our music news and musician interviews.
How do we do it?
We are all musicians who have, at some point, shared the plight and struggled with the dilemmas that our readers face. We draw on our experiences to make considerate suggestions keeping your preferences in mind. Our research is thorough, our acclamations are considerate and our content is precise.
Our buying guides aim to explain every nuance of the product category they feature and our reviews attempt to thin the herd so that you can make a quick and reliable choice. As a final step, all work is filtered through the keen eye of our editorial team before it is uploaded on the website.
KGR – Our Values
KGR is built on holistic values and an enduring work ethic – the prerequisite of any worthwhile endeavor of a successful organization. Our values serve your needs and your needs are our call to action.
In tune with our audience and community
We live, love, and lead with music in our own lives. Passion and compassion attune us to the music community we engage with – a privilege that we honor every step of the way.
An ear for music and an eye for details
We are part-artists and part-entrepreneurs, with one hand on the pulse of musicians and another on data and analytics. We create in-depth content to ensure that once you’ve read our article you don’t need to look any further.
Experience, Expertise, and Expression
We wake up each day wondering how to do this better. We are hungry to grow and improve. We love the challenge and are unapologetically consumer-driven.
This is our jam and you’re invited
We give each other space when needed and come together in a harmonious crescendo when the time is right. Like any good musician, we aim to create an ambiance that is musical and memorable without being too erudite.
Meet Our Team
Brian Kelleher
Founder/Director of Content
Brian has been playing music since 1986 when his older brother taught him to play Gigantic by The Pixies on a bass with two strings. Since then he’s owned dozens of instruments from guitars to e-drums, and spent more time than he’d like to admit sitting in vans waiting for venues to open across Europe and the US.
Back in 2018 or so Brian started the @KillerGuitarRigs Instagram page as a way to share cool looking guitars with people, and when the global shutdown came knocking in 2020, he decided to grow KGR into a website to kill some spare time. Since then the team has grown, and KGR is now the best place to find out about the killer guitarists that the big brands aren’t telling you about.
Favorite Genre: Metal, Punk, 90s Alternative
Simon Morgan
Lead Writer/Editor
Simon is an Orlando based musician, but originally hails from Newcastle, England.
He started playing bass and guitar in 1998, and played the local scene throughout his teen years before life got in the way.
Simon is a self confessed gear head, and will be keeping KGR readers up to speed with reviews and guides to all the latest guitars and equipment.
When he’s not playing guitar or writing KGR pieces, you’ll probably find him playing with his kids, walking the dog, or clangin’ and bangin’ at the gym.
Favorite Genres: Blues, Classic Rock, and he’s not ashamed to admit – Emo
David Slavkovic
News Editor
Got into hard rock and metal as a 6-year-old and started playing guitar at 9. Although an average metalhead, David has always been open to various genres. After 6 years of classical guitar school, he moved on to jazz-oriented lessons. Although not disciplined enough to conquer jazz, the stuff he learned was useful for his music.
He’s still a Tony Iommi fanboy. You can define David as a cliché dad-rock-loving Gibson Les Paul player.
David always planned for music to be nothing more than a hobby. However, after working as an agricultural engineer and acquiring a Master’s degree in the field, he (somehow) ended up writing for Ultimate-Guitar.com and currently holds a senior editor position in the website’s Articles section.
Main musical motto: There’s no such thing as bad music, just musical languages that you don’t understand.
Liam Engl
Staff Writer
UK born gear nerd that happens to play guitar. Began playing properly at the age of 12 after hearing Soilwork’s Natural Born Chaos and deciding trying to sound like Peter Wichers was a respectable life goal.
Full time guitar teacher and over the last decade has become involved in the audio/production side of things.
Currently plays a Carillion Polaris with Fishman Fluence pickups and a Kemper profiler rack.
Rodrigo Sanchez
Staff Writer
Rodrigo was born in Brazil but moved to Panama as a child. He studied Jazz guitar while at the University of North Texas and started writing for music magazines shortly after graduating.
He is part of the singer-songwriter duo Monalisa y Rodrigo, and spends much of his time writing songs and nerding out on the best chord voicings for the smoothest voice leading.
He also ponders daily on how much time to work on his songwriting vs classical chops vs jazz chops, to attain the ultimate utopian musical balance that only exists in his head.
Dan Eder
Staff Writer
Dan’s guitar journey began… on the bass. Which is a kind of guitar, right? He grew up playing in bands in the local NY hardcore scene and adding his signature mix of thumb thumping and deadly Drop D distortion. During that time, he managed to learn just enough about theory and songwriting to be dangerous, and slightly nerdy—in a good way.
Since picking up the guitar he has enjoyed playing a mix of styles, everything from folk and rock to punk and blues. Tons of blues. These days he mostly enjoys messing around with his guitars, bass, and looper pedal while developing new material. Coming soon to an open mike near you!
Suyasha Sengupta
Staff Writer
Suyasha Sengupta is a singer, songwriter, and music producer from India. She currently makes music under the moniker ‘Plastic Parvati’ and uses her platform to discuss issues such as politics, rights, and gender in India.
She’s also a part of the band Hotel Kali, an Indo-German collective.
When she’s not writing about, making, or performing music, she likes to practice and teach yoga and play with her two cats.
Anshul Jain
Staff Writer
Anshul picked up the guitar when he was 8, but decided to try his hands on other hobbies. Circling back to the six-string at 15, he’s been jamming Metallica ever since, and as a product of the digital age, is an amp modeller fanatic.
After trying over a dozen multi-fx units and plugins, he’s still chasing the perfect tone. But he does his best to help fellow KGR readers out with some hard-earned digital wisdom.
When he’s not shredding some Periphery with his band Black Flower, you’ll likely catch him cozy in bed watching the latest Netflix rom-com.
Gustavo Pereira
Staff Writer
Gustavo is a Portuguese musician based in Barcelona, where he’s studying jazz & modern music interpretation on the electric guitar.
Halfway through a degree in applied biology, he decided that he’d take his chances and change his life in order to be as involved with music as he possibly could.
When he isn’t playing, listening to new records or looking up music gear online, he loves to go for a bike ride around the city, and also taking care of his pet ball python named Darwin.
Martin Holland
Staff Writer
Martin grew up in a small-town in Australia and moved to the American West Coast when he was 15. He started building guitars with brother and father in their garage in the 80s, and today he works as a full-time luthier and part-time writer for KGR. He loves resonators, open tunings, and collects old Guild guitars – hoping someday they will make a comeback. He also plays the harmonica like a boss.
From tonewoods to timbre, from electronics to neck-profiles – this man has fitted and filed far too many guitars to let any detail go unnoticed. He owns a cozy music shop and often helps us with our detailed gear reviews and technical content. Furthermore, he never misses a chance to tell us young guns how every single record release after 1976 is ‘garbo’.
Andrew Bell
Staff Writer
Andrew started learning the piano at the age of 6. He shifted to the guitar in high school and never looked back… for two years. Then he picked up the mandolin and knew that was it – until he bought a djembe…
17 years later, everyone in every Guitar Center department knows Andrew on a first-name basis, but he is still looking for his dream instrument. He teaches music to kids, hosts drum-circles, performs at small-venues and cafes on weekends, and travels like there is no tomorrow. We are currently helping him fund his trip to Australia so he can become the next didgeridoo legend… for a few months.
Affiliate And Advertising Disclosure
Our goal when recommending products to you is that you can trust that our opinion is entirely unbiased (read more about our testing process here).
As a business with costs, we need to generate money to pay our writers, designers, researchers, website hosting, and many other costs.
We are a participant in several affiliate programs including but not limited to the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Accordingly, if we do link to a product on a partner site such as (but not limited to) Sweetwater or Amazon, we will do so using an affiliate link, and receive a percentage of what you spend.
However, the information relating to who pays us what is entirely separate from the writing staff – their opinions are in no way driven by our affiliate commissions.
We also occasionally receive products from vendors for reviews, and some may pay a fee to go towards costs. This is always disclosed within the article, though the fee is never to guarantee a good review.