D’Angelico and Fender have removed Turra-related content from their websites.
Image: Remyonline
Want more Guitar.com breaking news as it happens? Follow us on Telegram.
Over the last few years, Giacomo Turra has made waves on social media for his funky licks. We even interviewed him back in 2023, noting that the guitarist “has his own way of doing things” – however, new allegations suggest otherwise. YouTuber Danny Sapko recently accused Turra of stealing other people’s songs and passing them off as his own.
Sapko’s accusation came in the form of a YouTube video. The bassist compiled evidence of Turra’s alleged stealing, featuring the likes of guitarists Jack Gardiner and Alex Hutchings among the supposed victims, with side-by-side clips showing Turra copying them note for note. “This is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen in music,” Sapko says.
“It turns out that, from the very start of his social media rise, Giacomo’s been using other people’s compositions,” he explains. “[He’s] not properly crediting the artist, passing them off as his own, and selling tabs and isolated tracks on his website and Patreon.”
Sapko’s investigation found that Turra occasionally credited the original artists – but it wasn’t always clear. In some cases, he would instead claim to be ‘inspired’ by a particular artist, rather than simply saying that he was covering their composition note for note.
While Turra sometimes name-drops musicians, citing ‘inspiration’ falls short of giving proper credit. It’s the equivalent of saying you’re ‘inspired’ by Queen, then trying to pass off Bohemian Rhapsody as your own.
As you might expect, the guitar world was quick to respond to the allegations against Turra. Sapko has since released another video discussing the scandal, noting that D’Angelico Guitars has scrubbed their website of Turra’s presence, removing proof of his signature guitar and artist page.
Similarly, Andertons and Ernie Ball have removed videos with Turra from both of their YouTube channels. Fender has also made a video featuring Turra unlisted.
The video also proposes more evidence of Turra plagiarising other artists, including Jacob Collier and Benn Romano. Sapko also notes that a track copied from Tiago Gomes was also released as Turra’s latest single, which sheds light on the biggest issue of all.
Above all, Turra could be making money from parading these compositions as his own. “The real crime is that these were for sale as Giacomo’s original transcriptions, with none of it going to the original source,” Sapko notes in his video. “This is especially bad when you consider [Gardiner and Hutchings] sell their own music scores.”
Hutchings has since responded to the situation with his own video. “I don’t really wish any harm on the guy…” he says. “Hopefully he can learn and grow as a man.”
Hutchings first realised Turra had copied his work 8 months ago. “I just happened to come across it and I initially thought ‘oh wow, he kind of sounds inspired by me,’” he recalls.
But then he thought it felt a little too similar to his own style. “I watched it back and I thought ‘no it feels like really similar – like, [it had] the nuances of what I do.,” he explains. Then I looked back, found my original video from 3 years ago.”
While the revelation was upsetting, Hutchings was mainly “upset” by Turra burying his credit in the description. “Giacomo, if you’re watching this, I don’t mean anything bad to happen to you, but I just want to explain how it made me feel so you can understand the impact on others.” he says. “Your video got like 250,000 views… and my original got stuck at 6,000.”
“Even though I was tagged, [it was] way, way down in the description,” he explains. “Nobody saw that and everyone just assumed it was you playing. And the thing that felt like a kick in the teeth for me was everyone saying ‘Oh! I love this style! I’ve been listening to it on loop! You are so brilliant, you’re so fantastic!’”
“That’s the thing that hurts,” Hutchings concludes. “It’s that misrepresentation of you while you’re playing someone else’s style.”
Hutchings also adds that he and Gardiner have discussed Turra’s supposed plagiarism. However, he does not reveal Gardiner’s thoughts on the matter.
Turra has also responded to the allegations. “I swear that these artists were credited in the videos,” Turra says. “Not only that but most of them even shared the video, commented on the video and messaged me.”
He also added that he hasn’t been selling plagiarised tabs. “I only released one songbook in September 2024,” he notes. “It only contains five songs… and there are six covers that are my arrangements.”
“There must have been something wrong in crediting these artists in the sense that probably these credits were not evident enough in the videos, and probably I should have also answered comments,” he adds. “I should have specified.”
“Since that thing with Jack Gardiner happened, I have always been really attentive to credit this artist but apparently this credit must have not been evident enough. I really want to apologise to the guitar community for this behaviour.”
The world’s leading authority and resource for all things guitar.
© 2025 Guitar.com is part of NME Networks.
“Hopefully he can learn and grow as a man”: Artists respond to Giacomo Turra plagiarism scandal – as brands erase mention of him from their sites and YouTube channels – Guitar.com
