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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…
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Dan Hawkins
Toast of the Town
When The Darkness roared out of England with its 2003 debut Permission to Land and the hit “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” the music world was slapped across…
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NEWSWIRE
ARTISTS
Greg Koch
Making It Work
The latest release from guitar master Greg Koch is From the Up’Nuh with his son, Dylan, on drums and B3-whiz…
Anson Funderburgh
New Voice of the Rockets
One of the great ironies of blues music is that several of the “new” blues acts have by now sustained…
Bassist Greg Lake Passes
Bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, a force in the advent of progressive rock in the early 1970s with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP),…
Joel Hoekstra
Road Warrior
The busiest man in hard rock, Joel Hoekstra spends his life touring, recording, and jamming with Whitesnake, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Iconic,…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Vintage Gibson Amplifiers
EH-100 and 125
“No longer is the electric Hawaiian Guitar restricted to professional players – here is a genuine Gibson instrument that costs…
Dan’s Guitar RX: A 1955 Gibson Touch-up
Team Effort.
To keep work flowing in my shop, repairs often become a group effort. Recently, Gene Imbody, T.K. Kelly, Paul Schmittauer,…
First ’Burst
In May of 1958, a worker at the Gibson factory pulled two Les Paul guitars – serial numbers 8 3087…
Gibson Reissue ’58 Flying V
The Phantom V
A number of years ago I purchased a reissue/limited edition Gibson Flying V constructed in the 1958/59 configuration (strings through…
APPROVED GEAR
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Lively Drives
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Posh Squash
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Chet Powered!
Category 5 TBR-35 2×10
Backline Star
Don Ritter started Category 5 Amplification designing amps for blues players before expanding to other genres while holding to the…
Keeley Monterey Rotary Fuzz Vibe
Stomp Festival
Jimi Hendrix passed into infinity at the tender age of 27. The fact that his influential career lasted only four…
Full Dozen, Semi-Hollow
12 Variations on a Classic Design
To complement our February 2016 issue survey of the semi-hollow electric guitar, we tested 12 examples of the form as…
Grammatico LaGrange
Have Mercy!
Grammatico LaGrange Price: $1,850 Info: www.grammaticoamps.com. Stop the presses! John Grammatico has added a second amp to his line. Of…
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Tommy Castro
Circling Back
In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his soul-infused music, informed by the blues, R&B, pop, and rock and delivered with conviction. Beloved for his guitar work and vocal style, he has carved his own niche. Born and raised in San Jose, California,…
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Classics: Tommy Castro’s ’66 Fender Stratocaster
Tommy Castro has never been much for sitting with a guitar teacher, preferring instead to rely on good ol’ time in the saddle to hone his craft. But this 1966 Stratocaster has taught him a couple lessons. The guitar entered Castro’s universe in the hands of San Francisco music legend John Newton – known on…
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Classics: Arena-Rock Alternative Amps
Mad Maxed
As rock started hitting the big time in the mid ’60s, it became clear to guitar-amplifier manufacturers that 100 watts or more was the way to go. The best approach to big power, however, would follow several paths. The stories of the high-powered amps introduced by Fender, Marshall, and Vox through the ’60s have been…
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Vivi-Tone “Skeleton
A Master’s Magnificent Misfire
The eternal question “Who invented the electric guitar?” has no single answer. By the late 1920s, many players, tinkerers, and inventors were exploring ways to get more volume from fretted instruments. Steel-string flat-tops from Martin, f-hole archtops from Gibson, and metal-bodied resonators from National were louder than their predecessors, but ran up against physical limits.…
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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 per customer, any double entries will be automatically disqualified. See previous winners!! *ELIGIBILITY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.One entry per…
