• Super PickupGiveaway 2025

    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…

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Epiphone Riviera

August 28, 2022 · George Gruhn and Walter Carter

The Epiphone Riviera helped reinvent Epiphone in the 1960s as a modern guitar company whose instruments sported such contemporary features…

Bruce and Butter

May 27, 2014 · Willie G. Moseley

It would be an understatement to say that REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall and his 1965 Fender Jazz Bass, dubbed…

Warner Hodges

Warner Hodges

In And Out of Scorcherland

February 24, 2016 · Ward Meeker

If your ear was at all tuned to “alt-country” (a.k.a. cowpunk) in the late ’80s or you were lucky enough…

Freddie Salem

Outlaw On The Trail

October 11, 2021 · Pete Prown

The Outlaws weren’t just a great Southern band, but also one of the most intense guitar experiences in all of…

Greg Martin

Facts of Life

October 4, 2022 · Bret Adams

The pandemic knocked the Kentucky Headhunters’ 2020 plans out of whack, just like every other artist. It’s the primary reason…

Gator Cases MiniVault

Rolling Rack

August 4, 2024 · Ward Meeker

Every gigging guitarist who lugs their own gear (so, 95 percent of us) knows firsthand how instrument cases take a…

  • Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings

    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 5 - Telewiedler

John 5

Telewielder

March 1, 2016 · Ward Meeker

Since ditching his spot backing alternative-metal singer Marilyn Manson 10 years ago, superhuman guitarist John 5 has used his skills…

Greg Lake

Greg Lake

Welcome Back, My Friends Part 1 and 2

December 8, 2016 · Willie G. Moseley

Bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, a force in the advent of progressive rock in the early 1970s with Emerson, Lake and Palmer…

Great sounds, good times: Igor Prado

May 17, 2022 · Vintage Guitar

Brazilian guitarist plays American funk Igor Prado, organist Raphael Wressnig, and their band bring all-American funk on the new album,…

Wayne Nelson

Wayne Nelson

Little River Anchor

March 15, 2016 · Willie G. Moseley

Bassist/vocalist Wayne Nelson has decades of experience with the Little River Band and was the first American to join the…


CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Sun Rises Again

Sun Rises Again

February 10, 2016 · Michael Dregni

January, 1950: 27-year-old Sam Phillips opens Memphis Recording Service, soon to become famous as Sun Studio and launching rock and…

Martin 00-18

August 8, 2014 · John Pearse

They were days, before Kent State, when everywhere you looked, kids sat under trees, singin’ songs and swappin’ licks. Fresh-faced…

Hilary Gardner’s jazz/country connection

September 30, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Classic sounds on “Silver on the Sage” Hilary Gardner and her band are devout fans of classic cowboy (and other…

The Fender Stratocaster

Aiming High

July 5, 2017 · Richard R. Smith

In 1953, Leo Fender started planning a new standard guitar – the Stratocaster. His partner, Don Randall, who headed Fender…


NEWSWIRE

APPROVED GEAR

Godin ACS SA

Nylon Dreams

October 12, 2022 · Pete Prown

Too often, the notion of plugging in a thin-body guitar and getting a reasonably natural acoustic/electric tone is more dream…

Earthquaker Devices Special Cranker

True Grit

April 3, 2023 · Oscar Jordan

Plenty of stompbox fans remember the single-knob simplicity of Earthquaker Devices’ Speaker Cranker Overdrive. Kicking it up a notch, the…

Tech 21 English Muffy

Killer Combo

January 18, 2024 · Pete Prown

The Tech 21 Character Plus Series aims to combine a vintage amp with one classic overdrive/fuzz/booster circuit, essentially giving two…

Volt Electrics #004 Reverse

Mirror Image

April 16, 2019 · Oscar Jordan

From Johnny Winter and Stephen Stills to Scott Holiday, the Firebird has been turning heads since the early ’60s. Builders…

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Johnny Marr

Brit Gets a Git

November 24, 2015 · Ward Meeker

When pop-music fans in the U.K. talk about guitar heroes, they tend to put more stake in the way a…

VG Hall of Fame 2012 Inductees

January 9, 2013 · Vintage Guitar

Genesis/Steve Hackett

Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 50th/Live Magic at Trading Boundaries

November 7, 2025 · Pete Prown

One of those double-LP masterpieces of the ’70s, The Lamb was Peter Gabriel’s final achievement with Genesis, quitting immediately after…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part Two

April 5, 2024 · Peter Stuart Kohman

Last month, we began looking at some of the more entertaining fretted instrument advertising of the 20th century, in what…

Pop ’N Hiss: Lou Reed

Definitive Riffs- Lou Reed’s Rock ’N Roll Animal and Live

December 2, 2021 · Willie G. Moseley

Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly…

Analog Man BC183 Sun Face

Here Comes the (Black Hole) Sun

April 15, 2014 · Oscar Jordan

Analog Man BC183 Sun Face Price: $185 Contact: www.analogman.com Mike Piera has been building his line of stomp boxes bearing…

Grez Mendocino Short Scale Bass

Time-Machine Tone

April 3, 2023 · Michael Shirek

In the beginning, there was the Precision Bass. Following Leo Fender’s revelation, things branched out in all directions as builders…

Legendary ’Burst

The Peter Green/Gary Moore ’59 Les Paul Standard

November 29, 2017 · Willie G. Moseley

We take a life-size look at the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a sound that has for decades fascinated…

Mark Sebastian

Mark Sebastian

Hometown Noir

December 29, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

Mark Sebastian’s new album, The Real Story, is a paean to his musical roots in the Big Apple. “About a…

Goodtone Roadrage PD, Mad Professor Golden Cello

Secret Weapons

October 21, 2014 · Tom Guerra

Goodtone Roadrage PD, Mad Professor Golden Cello Price: $155 Info: www.goodtone.com. Goodtone Amps builder Norm Matthews has a rep for…

SynapticGroove Snapperhead OD/Distortion

SynapticGroove Snapperhead OD/Distortion

Dirty Deeds

May 10, 2014 · Oscar Jordan

With their first offering, Benjamin Harrison and Chrystal Gilles of SynapticGroove set out to fill the gap between heavy effects…

Classics: October 2023

Michael Bloomfield 1963 Fender Stratocaster

June 11, 2024 · Ward Meeker

Antonio Mazzara’s passion for music started at age 10, when he started playing a nylon-string classical guitar before moving up…

Dominic Miller’s Tasty “Mi Viejo”

August 30, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

Sting Guitarist’s Serene Harmonic Expressionism Using his new artist tribute model classical (the label says “1/1”!) made by K. Yairi,…

Mike Stern

Echoes and Other Songs

July 2, 2025 · Pete Prown

Mike Stern’s smokin’ new album is the last with longtime keyboardist and producer Jim Beard (Steely Dan), who died in…

D’Angelico Premier Bob Weir SS

Touch of Grey

April 26, 2019 · Michael Dregni

When Bob Weir introduced his D’Angelico Premier SS at NAMM last January, he performed a set of Grateful Dead and…

TWA Hot Sakè and Dynamorph

Circuit City

April 23, 2019 · Pete Prown

Totally Wycked Audio (TWA) builds a line of cool stompboxes that consistently push the envelope in the right direction. Two…

Check This Action: So Long, Charlie and Top

January 23, 2024 · Dan Forte

I was saddened to hear of the passing of ’50s rocker Charlie Gracie on December 16. The 86-year-old rocker sure…

EHX Tortion JFET Overdrive

EHX Tortion JFET Overdrive

January 25, 2016 · Ray Wuolo

EHX Tortion JFET Overdrive Price: $198.67 (list)/$179 (street) Contact: www.ehx.com Having teenage metal-shredders at home makes one appreciate that a…

George Cummings

Remembering Mississippi and Dr. Hook

February 27, 2018 · Willie G. Moseley

George Cummings is best known as the original guitarist for Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Born in Meridian, Mississippi,…

In Memoriam: Leslie West

1944-2020

November 22, 2021 · Ward Meeker

Leslie West, guitarist/frontman in the pioneering hard-rock band Mountain, died December 22, 2020, after going into cardiac arrest. He was…

Have Guitar Will Travel 140 – Iain Matthews

December 13, 2024 · James Patrick Regan

In episode 140 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” presented by Vintage Guitar Magazine, host James Patrick Regan speaks with singer-songwriter…

The Reverend Koch Gristle 90

Pop The Hood

July 28, 2022 · Pete Prown

What happens when you mix a classic design with the creativity of twang ace Greg Koch? You get the Reverend…

Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust, Splash MKII, and Pin Up Fuzz

Pure Sanity

August 13, 2014 · Phil Feser

Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust, Splash MKII, and Pin Up Fuzz Price: $290 (splash MKll); $260 (Pin Up Fuzz); $235 (Stardust)…

Chris Cain

Tales to Tell

June 10, 2022 · Oscar Jordan

Armed with a new deal with Alligator Records and producer Kid Andersen (of Rick Estrin & The Night Cats), Chris…

Republic 207 Tricone

Brass Ring

July 3, 2019 · Michael Dregni

Resonator guitars appear to inspire a particular kind of affliction among players. And it’s a difficult addiction to maintain, given…

Heaven and Hell

Neon Knights Reunite

March 3, 2010 · Lisa Sharken

                            In 1979, Black Sabbath was at…

Home Feature Image

Mu-FX Octave Divider

The Mu Is Back

June 10, 2016 · Michael Dregni

This is rocket science. Or at least as close as a stompbox gets. Sure, building a pedal that tweaks a…

Strymon’s Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker

Strymon’s Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker

Smart Box

February 11, 2016 · Michael Dregni

Strymon’s Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker Price: $299 (list) Contact: www.strymon.net It’s scary, wielding a stompbox that’s smarter than you.…

Steve Cropper

Friend, Legend

June 12, 2025 · Ward Meeker

Even before he began to record seminal music using an Esquire plugged into a Harvard amp – creating one of…