Hey guitar fans! We’ve got some seriously exciting news to share. That mind-blowing fingerstyle virtuoso you’ve been watching on YouTube for years? Matteo Mancuso? Well, he’s FINALLY heading stateside for his first proper headline tour!

If you haven’t seen this guy play, drop everything and look him up right now. No pick. Just fingers. And he shreds harder than most guitarists with a plectrum. It’s insane.

Matteo Mancuso – The Tour Rundown

Matteo will hit over 30 venues across the US and Canada from May through June 2025. This is huge for those of us who’ve been drooling over his videos but never had the chance to witness his otherworldly technique in person.

Here’s where you can catch him:

Heads up! Ticket sales are being staggered, so check with your local venue for on-sale dates. These will sell out fast – trust us.

Guitar Heroes Love This Guy

It’s one thing when fans go wild over a player. It’s another level entirely when the legends of guitar start freaking out. And boy, have they been freaking out about Matteo!

Here’s what the guitar gods have been saying:

1. Steve Vai called him “the evolution of guitar” (whoa)
2. Tosin Abasi dubbed him “a virtuoso beyond virtuosos” (double whoa)
3. Al Di Meola says he’s “lightyears ahead” of his peers
4. Joe Bonamassa proclaimed him “my new favorite guitar player”

When Joe Bonamassa brought Matteo on stage during a 2024 show in Berlin, Mancuso later described the experience as “otherworldly… honestly felt like daydreaming.”

From Sicilian Prodigy to Global Guitar Force

Quick backstory time! Matteo grew up in Palermo, Sicily, where his guitar-playing dad introduced him to a wide range of music. By age 12, he was already performing at jazz festivals (sorry to make you feel bad about your childhood guitar progress).

His education included both classical guitar training and jazz studies at the Palermo Conservatory, where he graduated with honors in 2022.

The breakthrough moment? A viral YouTube video in 2017 with his trio SNIPS, covering Jaco Pastorius’s “The Chicken” at blistering speed—all with that jaw-dropping fingerstyle technique. The video racked up millions of views and caught the attention of the guitar community worldwide.

In 2023, he released his debut album “The Journey,” which showcases his genre-blending approach—equal parts jazz fusion, rock energy, and classical finesse.

What To Expect At The Shows

If you’re heading to one of these gigs (and you absolutely should), here’s what you’ll experience:

• Matteo performing with his trio (Stefano India on bass and Giuseppe Bruno on drums)
• A mix of original compositions and creative arrangements of jazz standards
• Guitar skills that will make you question your life choices (kidding… kind of)
• His signature Yamaha Revstar custom electric guitar in action
• Tones ranging from pristine clean to full-throttle distortion

Don’t be surprised if you spot other guitarists in the audience frantically taking mental notes or filming his right hand. It happens at every show.

Inside the Beato Interview: “The World’s Greatest Guitarist?”

If you haven’t caught Rick Beato’s YouTube interview with Matteo (titled “The Matteo Mancuso Interview: The World’s Greatest Guitarist?”), it’s absolutely worth your time. Beato—known for his deep musical analysis and no-nonsense approach—was clearly blown away by Matteo’s playing.

The interview gives us the best look yet at how this young virtuoso approaches the instrument. Matteo demonstrates his techniques up close while explaining the thinking behind his revolutionary approach.

Some mind-blowing moments from the Beato interview:

• The accidental technique: Matteo reveals he started playing with his fingers simply because his dad played classical guitar: “I was always seeing my father playing classical guitar… I just thought that every guitar was meant to be played with fingers.” He didn’t know electric guitarists used picks!
• The nail secret: Those lightning-fast runs require reinforcement. “For the electric guitar I used a little bit of gel sometimes,” Matteo explains. “I used the gel for only these three fingers to harden the nail a little bit more.”
• The three-finger tremolo: When Beato asks about his Van Halen-style tremolo, Matteo demonstrates his ring-middle-index technique: “It’s kind of a tremolo, it’s similar classical guitar tremolo technique… but the position is actually more similar to the bass player.”
• Thumb technique for sweeps: Unlike pick users who might sweep pick, Matteo uses his thumb for upstrokes and index for downstrokes: “Instead of having like a down picking and up, I have like my thumb for the up and my index for down.”
• Tapping without nails: Matteo demonstrates how he adjusts the angle of his middle finger for tapping: “In order to get the note clean, I kind of have my… I always use my middle finger for the tapping first of all, so it’s kind of a little bit more in this position.” He angles his finger so the nail doesn’t hit the string.
• Breaking through with SNIPS: Matteo describes his first viral success with the SNIPS trio covering “The Chicken”: “We were playing a lot of jazz standard stuff… but we were arranging them in a way like, ‘Let’s play The Chicken like 100 BPM faster and let’s see what happens.'”
• His guitar heroes: Beyond the expected fusion masters, Matteo cites Eddie Van Halen as his first virtuoso inspiration: “It was the first one where I honestly thought, ‘Okay, I’m never going to be able to do this kind of stuff.'” Eric Johnson, Allan Holdsworth, and jazz greats like Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery round out his influences.

When Beato asks about balancing technique and musical tastes, Matteo offers this gem: “I’m always trying to find that balance. I don’t consider myself one of the best technical players; there are so many good players who can play twice as fast as me, or they know more leads and have more vocabulary. But people don’t care about your technical stuff; people care about the emotion of it. I’m always trying to search for that.”

The interview culminates with a jaw-dropping performance of “Falcon Flight” from Matteo’s debut album—showcasing his ability to blend simple, melodic phrases with complex harmonic structures. As Beato puts it at the end: “It’s such an honor to meet you and have you play here… I can’t believe seeing you play in person here. It’s really amazing.”

Matteo Mancuso US Tour – Get There Or Regret It

Look, we don’t want to overhype things, but… this is legitimately a chance to see guitar history in the making. Matteo represents something genuinely new in the guitar world—a player who’s absorbed all the traditions while pushing the instrument forward in unexpected ways.

Whether you’re a shred-head, a jazz cat, or just someone who appreciates seeing a musician at the absolute top of their game, this tour is must-see material.

So grab those tickets, bring a friend (preferably one whose mind you want to blow), and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor. The future of guitar is coming to town, and his name is Matteo Mancuso.

Got questions about Matteo’s technique or gear? Drop ’em in the comments below, and we’ll dig into the details!

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