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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…

Classics: August 2021
Guild F-20 Troubadour and Dan Armstong Lucite
John Wiley couldn’t have known it then, but when his parents rewarded two years of applying himself to guitar lessons…

Micki Free
Feel and Tone
He was the real-life team member on the infamous Charlie Murphy/Prince basketball game parodied on “Chappelle’s Show,” but Grammy…

Manouche courtesy of La Pompe Attack
(Gypsy) Jazzin’ a James Taylor Tune La Pompe Attack shows us their take on James Taylor’s “Traffic Jam,” from their…

Music Man’s Hybrid Boogie Amp: The RD-50
Say hey, fellow guitarists! If you live in the Northeast, it’s great to have a hobby that doesn’t require going…

Brown’s Guitar Factory Lap Steel
Steel Yourself
At the beginning of amplified music, one of the first instruments to get a magnetic pickup was the Rickenbacker “frying…

1965 Epiphone Emperor
The Epiphone Emperor has a long, convoluted history. It first appeared in Epiphone’s catalog in late 1935 as a response…
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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

David Hamburger
Top-Tier Tutorial
Whoever said, “Those who can’t do, teach” has never heard David Hamburger. Among his two dozen instructional books and videos,…

Big Al Anderson
Pawn Shop Guitars
Since last spoke to him, songwriter and master of the Telecaster Al Anderson has been extremely productive. More than a…

Alex Lifeson
Fresh Sonic Horizons
What do you do when you’re the beloved guitarist in a legendary band whose career was ended by the premature…

Happy Traum
Folk Guru: 1936-2024
On July 17, folk music lost one of its guiding lights with the death of Happy Traum at age 86.…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Jim Lauderdale’s honkey-tonk toe-dip
Singer/Songwriter’s Stylistic Twist Jim Lauderdale paid a visit to one of his favorite Nashville hangs and grabbed a gorgeous 1940…

The Doobie Brothers
Road Rules
If you’re making a list of beloved bands with a long string of hook-heavy hits, the Doobie Brothers will surely…

Road to Rock
The Electrifying Sounds of Post-War Guitar
Fans often mark the beginning of rock and roll as either Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions or Bill Haley & the…

Höfner’s Fledermaus Gitarre
A Bat By Any Other Name
Much like the scant records of almost every large-scale American guitar manufacturer, production logs at Höfner’s headquarters in Hagenau, Germany,…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Fryette Power Station PS-10
Get It On
There’s nothing like cranking up a tube amp and getting all the punch, feel, dynamics, and juicy goodness of warm…

K775V Kay Jazz II and K5970V Jazz Special Bass
A-Ohh-Kay
K775V Kay Jazz II and K5970V Jazz Special Price: $1,495 (K775V Jazz II electric guitar); $1,150 (K5970V Jazz Special electric…

Friedman IR-X Dual Channel Preamp
Stack in the Box
Most guitar-electronics companies make a direct-recording preamp, many promising to provide ultimate distortion and overdrive via impulse responses (IR) or…

Way Cool Version: Newman Guitars’ Honeycomb Chambered Jr.
Following Ted Newman Jones’ passing in 2016, protégé Jeff Smith took over Newman Guitars and is furthering the vision, using…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Tony Rice
1951-2020
Tony Rice, the guitar master and vocalist whose skills and eclecticism took him far beyond his bluegrass roots, died unexpectedly…

Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk Mk2 & Boomster Mk2
Brothers In Tone
Jam Pedals continually evolves its line by creating a cool menagerie of point-to-point stompboxes that adapt to a multitude of…

Rick Holmstrom
See That Light
After 13 years as soul/gospel/civil rights legend Mavis Staples’ guitarist and bandleader, Rick Holmstrom has earned the nickname from Staples’…

Sam Kiszka
Ethereal Energy
Guitar rock in 2023 doesn’t get bigger or ballsier than Greta Van Fleet. A veritable steamroller since “Highway Tune” launched…












































