Guthrie Govan (/ˈɡʌvən/; born 27 December 1971) is a British guitarist and guitar teacher, known for his work with the bands the Aristocrats, Asia, GPS, the Young Punx and the Fellowship, as well as his solo project Erotic Cakes.

Govan began listening to 1950s rock 'n' roll artists such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, and later the Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and AC/DC, among others.

Half-Scottish, Govan was also heavily influenced by Zal Cleminson, a Scottish guitarist best known for his work with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

[1] At the age of nine, Govan and his brother Seth played guitar on a Thames Television programme called Ace Reports.

In the meantime, Govan hit upon the idea of transcribing music from records professionally, and submitted the most technically difficult piece he could think of (a Shawn Lane transcription) to Guitar Techniques magazine.

[2] Govan has since worked with Guitar Techniques,[2] providing transcriptions of songs, including his own track Wonderful Slippery Thing.

[4] Since the late 1990s, Govan has taught at the Guitar Institute in Acton, Thames Valley University, and the Academy of Contemporary Music.

[5][6] Govan began his involvement with Asia playing on the album Aura, after the band was unable to secure the services of their first two choices for guest guitarists: Brian May or Steve Lukather.

He was replaced by virtuoso guitarist Mitch Perry, known for his work with Cher, Ratt, Lita Ford, and the Michael Schenker Group.

[10] Payne, Govan and Schellen also formed GPS (named after the members' initials), and after the addition of Ryo Okumoto on keyboards the band released the album Window to the Soul (2006).

[13] In addition to bass by Govan's brother Seth and drumming by Pete Riley, the album features guitar solos by Richie Kotzen (whose Los Angeles studio was used to record the guitar tracks on the album) on Ner Ner and Bumblefoot on Rhode Island Shred respectively.

Previous versions of Waves and Rhode Island Shred appeared on the compilation Guitar on the Edge, Vol 1. no.4 (Legato Records, 1993).

[2][14] In late 2011, Govan announced a new tour with a new band the Aristocrats, featuring Bryan Beller on bass and Marco Minnemann on drums.

Govan was the lead guitarist in Steven Wilson's band, performing on The Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand.

In addition, he has contributed to a number of Hans Zimmer soundtracks such as The Boss Baby (2017), X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), The Lion King (2019), and Dune (2021).

The trek made its way through Italy and Germany and featured support from Mike Keneally on guitar, keyboards and vocals as well as Govan's band, the Aristocrats: bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann.

Since 2015 Guthrie Govan has embarked on more frequent solo tours, mostly in Asia where he has a lot of fans requesting him to perform live.

For concerts in Japan he relies on drum prodigy Senri Kawaguchi, keyboard player Akira Ishiguro and bassist Mohini Dey.

Govan's earliest influences were Jimi Hendrix and Cream-era Eric Clapton; as such he describes himself as coming from a "blues rock background".

Jazz and fusion elements are an important part of his style: he cites Joe Pass, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck and John Scofield as pivotal influences in this respect.

Govan's model sported a caramelised basswood body, birdseye maple top, a caramelised maple neck, Sperzel locking tuners, custom pick-ups by Michael Frank-Braun and a custom in-house developed (floating) tremolo bridge similar in design to a Floyd Rose, but without fine-tuners.

For the Hans Zimmer tours, Govan uses a Kemper profiler, because with an orchestra on stage and using in-ears it is not advised to blast loud noises through a cabinet.

The small footprint makes it easier traveling for a musician and the current digital solution comes extremely close to the former analog experiences.

Since mid 2022 Guthrie has changed his performance live gear to a Fractal FM9 (FX and amp simulator) and no longer uses any amplifier but only a powered monitor.