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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. …

Blues Player of the Year
Joe Bonamassa Awarded in 2018 Joe Bonamassa can be safely filed in the “force of nature” category. Thirty years ago,…

Gibson’s Depression-Era Exports
Many aren’t aware that some of the archtop guitars Gibson produced during the Depression were marketed under different brand names,…

Spoon
Lucifer On The Sofa
Ten studio albums in, Spoon’s latest just may be its purest rock-and-roll record. What took so long? The band’s early…

Yamaha’s THR100HD Dual Amp
Double Vision
Modeling amps have evolved rapidly as software and circuits have improved and become, dare we say, more organic sounding. The…

Khalif Wailin’ Walter
DIY Blues
Blues guitarist Khalif Wailin’ Walter now makes his home in Essen, Germany, but the sound that emanates from his fretboard…

Travis Stever
A Conceptual Break
Few rock bands have explored the “concept album” format as thoroughly as Coheed and Cambria; the band’s first seven full-length…
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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,…
ARTISTS

John Jorgenson
Stringed-Instrument Ecstasy
The title of John Jorgenson’s new three-CD boxed set, Divertuoso, combines two words – “diverse” and “virtuoso” – to aptly…

Brad Paisley
Two Vital Guitars From the Collection of a Modern Superpicker
Brad Paisley’s 2011 book, Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me, is…

The Sebastian ‘Burst
Inspirational Icon
The mere mention of a Gibson Les Paul Standard made between 1958 and 1960 commands attention. But one like this,…

Pop ’N Hiss: Dio’s Holy Diver
Divine Metal
Vocalist Ronnie James Dio was on a roll as he formed the band that would record his 1983 album Holy…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Doublenecks, Triplenecks…
And the California Weird Factor
If you mention doubleneck or multi-neck guitars to your average guitar player, the first thing they’ll likely think of is…
The Guild Starfire Bass
In the mid ’60s, Guild took its knocks for making guitars that looked “inspired by” Gibson models. Fans of the…

Barney Kessel’s ES-350 Rides Again
Return Of An Icon
Bruce Forman acquired Barney Kessel’s beloved Gibson ES-350 in mid 2021. In prep for recording Reunion!, he made the guitar…

The Vox AC15
AMP-O-RAMA
The Vox AC30 grabbed most of the headlines for years, but many tonehounds have come to appreciate the sweet, juicy…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Waterloo WL-14
Modern Johnson
Waterloo WL-14 Price: $2,100, $1,890 (street) Contact: www.collingsguitars.com or www.waterlooguitars.com Robert Johnson slid into a photo booth, dangling a cigarette…

Grez Mendocino Short Scale Bass
Time-Machine Tone
In the beginning, there was the Precision Bass. Following Leo Fender’s revelation, things branched out in all directions as builders…

Allen Amplification Hot Blond 1×15 Combo
Some Like It Hot
In the story of the Fender amp – after the tweedy pre-Army Elvis and before the black-face Deluxe British blues…

Victoria Silver Sonic
Sonic Intoxication
For nearly 20 years, Victoria Amplifier Company has been making head-turning retro-styled amps. Mark Baier and his crew recently introduced…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Gibson Basses in The ’70s
Plucky Trio from the “Downer Decade”
Guitar enthusiasts have long heard that the 1970s were the “downer decade” for Fender and Gibson, both of which introduced…
Park 75
Park 75 Preamp tubes: three ECC83 (12AX7 equivalents) Output tubes: two KT88 Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Volume II, Volume I, Treble,…

Ken Fischer
1945-2006
Although by most estimates he produced fewer than 100 Trainwreck amps, Ken Fischer – tech, designer, and amp-maker – will…

Check This Action: Back Aboard
Despite (or because of) the huge Folk Boom of the late ’50s and early ’60s, these days “folk” is almost…










































