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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…
Dumble Overdrive Special OD150 WR
Alexander Dumble’s creations were already established as legendary when we probed our first example in this space back in May…
Pop ’N Hiss: UFO’s Lights Out
Shining Bright
Most critics and fans agree that the finest studio album by British hard-rockers UFO was 1977’s Lights Out. The group’s…
Aldo Nova’s 2022 “Paradise”
Rock legend’s thunderous return Forty years after “Fantasy,” Canadian rock legend Aldo Nova has returned with two new projects. One…
Arv Garrison
Forgotten Hero of Bebop Guitar
American music history is fraught with tales of forgotten heroes. In the ’40s, jazz guitarists like Tiny Grimes, George Barnes,…
Fretprints: Van Halen
Birth of the Brown Sound
In the late 1970s, hard rock was on the ropes. Always a guitar-dominated form of music, it had been diluted…
Tinsley Ellis
Naked Truth
It’s hard to believe that Tinsley Ellis, one of contemporary blues’ most-prominent artists since the late ’80s, is only now…
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Carr Skylark Special 1×12
Take Flight
Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced tonal depths to squeeze a lot more into this diminutive…
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ARTISTS
2025 December Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Rick Derringer, Kid Ramos, Booker T and The M.G.’s, Steve Stevens, Phil Manzanera, Doug Aldrich, Kenny…
Fretprints: Ted Greene
Solo Guitarist Extraordinaire
Few guitarists enjoy the adulation bestowed on Ted Greene. A legend who coaxed unimaginable sounds from a humble Telecaster and…
Mark Knopfler
Straitforward
Very early in life, Mark Knopfler had a connection with music. His mother cared for the family while BBC programs…
Joanna Connor
Still Rising
Joanna Connor’s new album is a killer batch of tunes with a live feel infused by the spirit of Chicago’s…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Pandemic Peak?
The Guitar Market’s “Covid Surge”
In the September ’20 issue, VG surveyed guitar dealers to learn how they’d been impacted by the early weeks of…
The Rogue VB-100 Violin Bass
Fab As It Looks?
The Rogue VB-100 Series II is an homage to the venerable Höfner 500/1 semi-hollowbody. Popularly known as the “Beatle bass,”…
The Fender Showman
The Showman
In addition to several significant shifts in style and presentation, for Fender, the transition of the late 1950s into the…
Dallas Rangemaster and Scala Combos
Texas Two Step
Fascinating also-rans, C-list classics, or both, the amps manufactured by London-based Dallas Music Ltd beginning in 1959 tie directly to…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5
Pretty, Stunning
Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5 Price: $3,199 (list) Contact: www.hullamps.blogspot.com A beat-up ol’ blackface amp can be a thing of beauty,…
Keeley Electronics Seafoam Chorus
Side Effects
Keeley Electronics Seafoam Chorus Price: $229 (list) Contact: www.robertkeeley.com In a world of proliferating effects pedals, discovering one that does…
Harden Engineering BluesBird
Bird Can Sing
If you’re wondering about builder Bill Harden’s inspiration in creating the BluesBird, think Coodercaster – a customized Frankenstein’s monster of…
TWA GD-02 Great Divide Analog Synth Octaver
Mono Monster
TWA GD-02 Great Divide Analog Synth Octaver Price: $399 Info: www.godlyke.com . Despite its cumbersome name and the fact it…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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And an Archtop Mystery
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Supergroup Alpha
Kristian Borring – post-bop wizard
Danish jazzer’s transcendent style on “Persian Hills” Kristian Borring plays a fabulous version of “Persian Hills,” from Number Junky’s…
Chordal Colorations
Iconic Axes of Different Hues
Though their colors are complementary, Brian May’s Red Special and Brian Setzer’s ’59 Gretsch 6120 couldn’t be more different in…
Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave and SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
Circuits Gone Wild
Fuzz and octavers are among the hottest pedals around, with some builders even melding them to great effect. The Red…
Radial Tonebone Hot British V9 and North-Star
Tone Deep Down
Since the mid ’90s, Radial Engineering has been making audio products with a rep for superb performance and top-tier construction.…
