Guitar World and GuitarPlayer profile Anna Cara, the guitarist covering Nita Strauss's Alice Cooper touring slot
Guitar World and GuitarPlayer both published deep-dive features this week on Anna Cara, the 23-year-old Newcastle guitarist who has spent 2026 filling Nita Strauss's touring chair in Alice Cooper's band. Here's her story, and the gear behind it: Ibanez Xiphos guitars and a S.I.T. Strings .010-.052 gauge.
By Axel, Classic Rock Desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Guitar World (July 14) and GuitarPlayer (July 16) both published new profiles this week on Anna Cara, the 23-year-old guitarist from Newcastle, England who has toured with Alice Cooper's band since April 2026, covering Nita Strauss's maternity leave. Cara plays Ibanez Xiphos guitars and endorses S.I.T. Strings in a .010-.052 gauge. She also tours with Krokus singer Marc Storace's band and Tommy Henriksen's Crossbone Skully.
Two magazines, one week, one guitarist
Anna Cara didn't just join Alice Cooper's band this week, that happened back in April 2026. What's new is the attention: Guitar World and GuitarPlayer both ran fresh deep-dive features on her within 48 hours of each other, Guitar World on July 14 and GuitarPlayer on July 16 (Guitar World, GuitarPlayer). Both outlets went back to the same source, Cooper guitarist Tommy Henriksen, for the story of how a 19-year-old from Newcastle ended up filling one of hard rock's more storied touring-guitarist chairs.
The timing tracks with Cara's own year: she made her live debut with Cooper's band on April 2, 2026, at a run of "Welcome to Our Nightmare" shows in Las Vegas, then played the U.S. and European legs of Cooper's "Alice's Attic" tour through July. Now 23, having celebrated a birthday somewhere on the road, she's become enough of a fixture that two of guitar journalism's biggest outlets decided this was the week to tell her origin story.
How a Newcastle guitarist ended up in Alice Cooper's band
Cara is self-taught, and by her own account started playing at 14, watching Alice Cooper live videos on YouTube (Alice Cooper's official site). Henriksen, who plays guitar for both Cooper and the Hollywood Vampires, spotted her playthrough videos on social media in 2022 and recruited her, at 19, for his own project, Crossbone Skully. "I sent her a message and said, 'I love what you're doing. You've got a great vibrato and feel. Can I call you and your parents?'" Henriksen told GuitarPlayer. "I FaceTimed them and said, 'I like your daughter's playing. She's a natural. She plays like Gary Moore. She's got the vibrato of a 55-year-old man.'"
Crossbone Skully's debut album, Evil World Machine, went on to earn millions of streams. By 22, Cara had also become lead guitarist for Storace, the band fronted by Krokus vocalist Marc Storace alongside Pat Aeby, Dom Favez, and Emi Meyer. When Nita Strauss, Cooper's guitarist since 2014, announced she was stepping away to welcome her first child, Strauss looked at the field of up-and-coming players and didn't hesitate. "When I was asked in an interview who I thought was the best up and coming guitarist, I had no hesitation in answering 'Anna Cara,'" Strauss said in Cooper's own announcement. "Anna's precision and soulful, emotional playing will make her an amazing asset to the Cooper tour!"
Cooper introduced Cara to fans on April 2, 2026: "Anna Cara is a beautiful dynamic shredder in the vein of Nita but with a style of her own. She will fit in with our gang perfectly while Nita is away." The arrangement is explicitly temporary maternity cover, not a lineup change, and as of this writing Strauss hasn't announced a specific return date. Cara, for her part, keeps a full slate: GuitarPlayer reports she returns to Cooper's band in September while continuing to tour with Storace through the summer and into December.
The gear: Ibanez Xiphos guitars and a S.I.T. 10-52 gauge
Documented stage use · X-series body
Ibanez Xiphos
GuitarPlayer's reporting on Cara documents her playing a collection of the X-shaped Ibanez Xiphos on stage with Cooper's band. No formal Ibanez sponsorship is publicly confirmed; this is a cited sighting, not a claimed endorsement.
Source: GuitarPlayer.
S.I.T. Strings artist · .010-.052
S.I.T. Power Wound Nickel Electric Strings
Cara is listed on S.I.T. Strings' own artist roster. Her direct quote: "I'm using 10-52s and they feel incredibly smooth and consistent. I can always rely on them whether I'm recording or on stage!"
Source: S.I.T. Strings.
CYS doesn't carry S.I.T.'s own line, but the Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinky Cobalt ships the identical .010-.052 hybrid gauge, a straightforward way to match her numbers on a widely available, currently sold set. That's a gauge match, not a documented claim that Cara plays Ernie Ball strings. It's the same hybrid logic either way: a standard .010 top three for bend-friendly leads, paired with a heavier .030-.052 bottom three so rhythm parts hold their weight in Cooper's arena-rock sets.
Full sourcing on Cara's rig lives on her CYS profile, which will expand as more of her setup gets documented.
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