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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…

Budda’s Baby Budda Amp Head
Big-Boy Tone
Budda Amplification staked its claim in 1995 with the Twinmaster boutique amplifier. Its hand-wired construction and user-friendly tones were hits…

Arteffect Bonnie Wah
Cry No More!
Israel-based Arteffect’s new Bonnie wah pedal is an accurate re-creation of the highly soughtafter vintage Vox Clyde McCoy wah. The…

D’Angelico’s Deluxe Atlantic Baritone
Lowdown
Baritone guitars have been around for decades, traditionally featured in Nashville and Hollywood studios and elsewhere to “sweeten” a track…

The Quaker City Night Hawks
Advertised as “The spirit of ZZ Top meets Texas boogie rock,” the Night Hawks play up the image of unpretentious…

Vince Gill & Paul Franklin
Homage to Ray Price
Vince Gill and longtime friend, collaborator, and pedal-steel giant Paul Franklin share a love of country music history. Bakersfield, their…

EarthQuaker Devices’ Space Spiral Modulated Delay
Will You Repeat That?
One particularly well-worn joke about playing a bad note advises you to play it twice so folks will think you…
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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

Molly Miller – top-flight instrumental rock, jazz, and twang
Trio rips on “2 West” Instrumental guitar music is having a moment. Offering a stellar example, Molly Miller and her…
Wally Stocker
A Baby Grows Up
After decades away from the music scene, guitarist Wally Stocker is back on his feet again and back where he…

Kenny Wayne Shepherd
More Trouble
In 1997, the rock music being embraced by radio and MTV was primarily pop punk (Green Day), rap metal (Limp…

Dave Specter, Swimming in ’verb!
Twangy Texas blues via Chicago Dave Specter (no relation to Phil!) uses his reissue Jazzmaster plugged into a ’65 Vibrolux…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery
Jon Butcher tales his Olympic White ’63 Strat for a rip on “Jam,” a track from his new album, “Nuthin’…

Guild Aristocrat M-75
Guild didn’t intro-duce a true solidbody electric guitar until 1963, but the Aristocrat of 1954 gave the appearance that Guild…
National Model N-720
Star of an Era's End
Most acoustic guitar players will likely show disdain for any instrument with a bolt-on neck. Even though there have been…

The Peoples’ Guitar
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,…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Schertler’s JAM 150
Plays Well with Others
Schertler’s JAM150 Price: $1,249.99 (list); $999.99 (street) Info: www.schertler.com Schertler’s JAM150 is a compact combo amp capable of pulling double-duty…

Category 5 Samantha
Hook, Line, and Tone
Blues-rocker Samantha Fish (VG, December ’21) electrifies audiences with her high-energy shows. A decade ago, she began favoring Category 5’s…

DryBell Unit67
Balkan Boost
DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory has been kicking out great pedals for a few year, with clients like Mike Landau, John…

Positive Grid’s Experience Hendrix For Spark & BIAS FX 2
Get Experienced
In the pantheon of guitar gods, few are studied to the degree of Hendrix. And, given the warp speed at…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

The Travis Bean TB1000S Standard
A Better Idea
Guitar history is littered with “better ideas,” some of which stayed around, went nowhere, or went somewhere before landing in…

SynapticGroove Snapperhead OD/Distortion
Dirty Deeds
With their first offering, Benjamin Harrison and Chrystal Gilles of SynapticGroove set out to fill the gap between heavy effects…

In Memoriam: Tony “T.S. McPhee
Groundhogs leader Tony “T.S.” McPhee ranked with the greatest British blues guitarists, whether solo acoustic or ensemble electric, slide or…

Rising Rockers
Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
In an era when the sub-20-watt combo is arguably the most popular guitar-amp format, it’s worth remembering that several classics…













































