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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…

Fender Mike McCready Strat
Evener Flow
Mike McCready’s beat up sunburst ’60s Strat looms large in the history of grunge; heard on Pearl Jam’s illustrious body…

Nili Brosh: Super Busy Super Shredder
Exclusive look at “Lavender Mountains” and her Ibanez LA Custom RG770” Nili Brosh recorded her new single, “Lavender Mountains” using…

Tommy Shaw and James Young
Styx’s Crowning Achievement
“One thing I like about how Styx does progressive stuff is we try and make it friendly progressive, not math,”…

Weller El Dorrado
Rock-and-Roll Screamer
Tucked away in southwest Illinois near St. Louis, luthier Steve Weller is making interesting instruments. His El Dorrado model is…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary
The essential tragedy of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is that they never recorded a sequel to Déjà Vu. Instead,…
Ibanez Artcore AF105NT
Class Axe
Ibanez has always had two distinct personalities – first as a purveyor of shreddy solidbodies for the hard rock/metal crowd,…
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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

Chris Jack
The Routes: Psychedelic Faithful
The Routes embody all the best elements of the ’60s psychedelic-rock scene. Based in Japan and fronted by British-born guitarist…

Ray Bonneville
Easy Groove
Ray Bonneville’s latest album, Easy Gone, glides on a steady groove. “I really like the way it sounds with these…

The Return of Jerry Kennedy’s 00-18
Seventy Years Gone
Nashville legend Jerry Kennedy has won Grammy awards and owned numerous collectible instruments. And if Guinness World Records tracked such…

Jesse Aycock
Oklahoma’s Finest
Super-sideman Jesse Aycock (Hard Working Americans, Elizabeth Cook) has a new self-titled album highlighting his understated (but mindblowing) guitar, slide,…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Fender’s “First-Gen” Strat
The Fender Stratocaster is arguably the most popular electric guitar model in the world. From the time of its introduction…

Park Model 1229
Half-Stack Heaven
Vintage Park amplifiers have long offered happy hunting for those seeking stealthy “Marshall in disguise” kicks. But the maker used…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux
A Return to Glory for “Jerry”
In 1977, I was doing guitar repair in Big Rapids, Michigan, and my services included picking up and delivering repair…
Fender Precision Bass Elite II
On a Tangent In Its Time
Precision Bass has been offered in a myriad of models in its 50 years of existense, including a number of…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Radial Headload Guitar Amp Load Box
Taming a Shrew
As low-power amps gain in popularity, one wonders what will happen to all the 50- and 100-watt amps starting to…

LsL Instruments’ Soledad
T-Bone with a Side of Sustain
Based out of Santa Clarita, California, LsL Instruments was founded by Lance and Lisa Lerman in 2008 after many years…

Sturdy and “Purdy”
Dashboards Pedalboards
Founded in 2010 by guitarist Ashley Dasher and based on his vision of the ideal touring pedalboard, Dashboards offers well-crafted,…

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…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus 50th Anniversary
Mr. Clean
The Roland Corporation was born in 1972 and just a few years later introduced its landmark Jazz Chorus JC-120 amplifier.…

Ampeg VT-22
Preamp tubes: four 7025 (12AX7 types) Output tubes: two 5881 (a more-rugged 6L6 type), fixed-bias Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Bass Instrument…

Croy and the Boys
There’s something about the Telecaster – as well as its forerunners and inspired imitators – that attracts musicians whose music…

Ritchie Blackmore
Machine Head at 45: Tone Secrets of Deep Purple’s Masterwork
In any conversation about the dawn of hard rock and metal, several bands rise up – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath,…











































