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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

James Mastro
All Texture, No Clutter
As one of the guitarists in Ian Hunter’s Rant Band for the past 17 years, James Mastro is responsible for…

Pop ’N Hiss: Robben Ford and Yellowjackets
Inside Story
In 1975, 24-year-old Robben Ford was making a name for himself on the Los Angeles music scene, where competition was…

Bob Seger and the Borneo Band
Lakeview High School, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, April ’73
If you were a Detroit kid in the 1960s, it was impossible to cruise Woodward Avenue and not hear a…

Harley Benton Double Vision
Mod Duo
In this era of combination pedals, it makes sense to house similar effects together, as in the Harley Benton Double…

Neil Young
Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition
Young’s 1972 smash delivered on the promise of CSNY, offering California rock rife with acoustic guitars, piercing lyrics, and cozy…

Flamin’ Groovies
Live 1971 San Francisco
Flamin’ Groovies are best known for the ’76 power-pop gem “Shake Some Action,” but this show – recorded five years…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS

Wolf Hoffmann
Mean Business
Traditional heavy metal is still a thriving beast thanks to bands like Accept, whose latest studio album, Too Mean to…

Check This Action: One Sax, Three Guitars
It starts with a tenor saxophone floating above spare electric guitar arpeggios. After a dipsy-doodle cadenza, the sax states a…

Paul Reed Smith
Roaring With Hendrix
Believe it or not, Paul Reed Smith can play the hell out of the guitar. In a world where most…

Deke Dickerson
Making Merle’s Memoir
From the day he first picked up a guitar at 13, Deke Dickerson honed in on guitarists like Chuck Berry,…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Gibson GA-83S Stereo-Vib
If you hung around the audio world’s collective R&D room long enough in the late 1950s and early ’60s, you’d…

Big Beat Boys
Musings on Fab and Gear, 50 Years Ago
Americans tend to link the beginnings of the Beatles phenomenon to a specific date – February 9, 1964, when the…

Silver Lining
Gibson and the Master Models
Recognized today as visionary, when introduced in 1922, Gibson’s Master Model L-5 and F-5 were expensive to produce and lacked…

Six-String Kicks
Wood from Famed Bowling Alley Set to Sing
Few things scratch America’s cumulative itch for nostalgia like Route 66 – the famed wagon-trail-cum-highway that offered passage to those…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Martin D-13E Ziricote
Contemporary Cannon
From the time the first self-branded models shipped from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in the early 1930s, the Martin dreadnought has been…

Supro Comet 1610RT
Desert-Island Jams
Supro’s Comet 1610RT just may be the perfect desert island amp – a high-gain, low-watt 1×10 combo that maybe doesn’t…

Cordoba 15CFM
Hawai’i Not?
The ukulele phenomenon shows no signs of slowing, with models ranging from well under $100 on up to thousands. The…

Riversong Guitars Tradition One Performer
New Tradition
Riversong Guitars Tradition One Performer Price: $3,299 (list) Contact: www.riversongguitars.com Occasionally, a luthier’s innovation defines a new acoustic guitar sound.…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

Musicvox Space Cadet 12
Chime Machine
Musicvox Space Cadet 12 Price: $899 (direct) Contact: musicvox.com As you may have read in Michael Wright’s profile of the…

Ditson’s Style 11 and the Birth of the Dreadnought
Martin’s Big Step
In the early 20th century, any shopper who walked into the Charles H. Ditson & Company music stores in New…

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…

deLisle Nickel Box
A Nickel For Your Chops
deLisle Nickel Box Price: $609 (list); $729 (as tested) Info: www.delisleguitar.com Low-watt amplifiers have enjoyed a run of popularity. Offering…














































