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Super PickupGiveaway 2025
Win Big! 11 Sets! 11 Winners! Win a set of pickups from one of these sponsors: Deadline is March 15, 2026. Complete the survey below to enter giveaway. One entry…
Classics: October 2023
Michael Bloomfield 1963 Fender Stratocaster
Antonio Mazzara’s passion for music started at age 10, when he started playing a nylon-string classical guitar before moving up…
Festive Frets
Suggested Listening for Your “Guitholidays”
Listen to VG’s “Festive Frets Holiday Play List” on Spotify! From the two-string refrain that kicks off Bobby Helms’ “Jingle…
Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka
Heavy Steps : Road Ready
“Rock and roll is a young man’s game.” Once upon a time, it was the genre’s calling card. A half-century…
Fender 6G6-C Bassman
Brown Sound
There are several revered classics amid the ever-evolving circuits in the amplifier known as the Bassman, but one of the…
Cash Box Kings
Oscar’s Motel
For two decades, the Cash Box Kings have stood apart from the multitudes of “blues bands” that focus on bar-band…
Q&A With George Gruhn: Formica Pickguard on an Early Les Paul?
And Not-So-Strange Variations on an ’87 LP Standard
I’ve just completed restoring a very early Les Paul that was horribly damaged and poorly repaired, then painted black! I’m…
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Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings
Double-bound for Glory
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success came early and their lap steels set standards of quality,…
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ARTISTS
John Hart
Mainline Florida
Inspiration can come from a lot of places. For jazz guitarist John Hart, a visit to a familiar place provided…
Sunny War
Love and Nothingness
Eclectic folk-punk stylist Sunny War’s latest album, Anarchist Gospel, is a break-up album mixing black folk, acoustic gospel, and symphonic…
Carlos Santana
Musical Outreach
Carlos Santana’s creative drive is obsessive, restless – and relentless. For his latest album, Blessings and Miracles, he pooled the…
Charlie Parr
A Muse From Olden Times
Charlie Parr makes new music from olden times. And he makes it the old way – not only using just…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Gibson Humbucker
Crunchy, Clean Dirt
Gibson and Fender may be the longstanding heavyweight rivals of the electric guitar game, but they have one very important…
Yamaha Image
Some years back, an insurance company promoted itself as “the quiet company.” While they probably wouldn’t like to hear it,…
Weissenborn Style#4
The acoustic Hawaiian guitar of Hermann Weissenborn is one of the most specialized instrument designs of the 20th century. Weissenborns…
Gibson GA-CB Custom Built
Gibson GA-CB Preamp tubes: three 6SJ7, two SQ7, two Sj5 Output tubes: two 6L6 Rectifier: 5T4 Controls: Microphone Gain, Instrument…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Ibanez Artcore AF105NT
Class Axe
Ibanez has always had two distinct personalities – first as a purveyor of shreddy solidbodies for the hard rock/metal crowd,…
EHX’s Bad Stone Phase Shifter, C9 Organ Machine, and Pitch Fork Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
Pedal Heaven
When it comes to stompboxes, there are the standard go-to effects that every guitarist, whether a gigging musician or a…
Relic the Hague’s Scumbag
Rock-and-Roll Animal
On the surface, the Scumbag is a simple rock beast. With a 25.5″-scale neck, maple fingerboard, and bolt-neck construction, it…
Mooer’s Slow Engine Volume Swell
Bring It Up
Long out of production, the Boss Slow Gear was one of the coolest pedals of the ’80s, duplicating the sound…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Jared James Nichols
P-90 Proponent
Ladies and gentlemen, Jared James Nichols is bringing savagery back to rock and roll. His weapon of choice – vintage…
Classics: December 2023
Cliff Antone’s 1952 Fender Precision
Texas is known for music, especially Austin, which in the mid ’70s became a hotbed thanks to clubs like Armadillo…
Recording Acoustic Guitars
The Art of Home Recording
Recording an acoustic guitar is very different from recording an electric, employing different microphones, placement, and technique. Here are a…
Gary Moore: The Official Biography
Harry Shapiro
The ultimate unsung hero, Moore made a seismic impact on heavy guitarists, without being a huge star himself. That’s the…
