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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…

Mike Matthews
The Special Effect at Electro-Harmonix
As a child of four, Mike Matthews’ mother taught him how to play classical-style piano. Formal lessons followed; the child…

D’Angelico Excel SS
Classic Versatility
The modern D’Angelico company specializes in hip semi-hollow guitars with a nod toward their namesake, legendary luthier John D’Angelico. Case…
Dutch Kazoo Analog Fuzz Pedal
OD Treat
Dutch Kazoo Analog Fuzz Pedal Price: $225 retail Info: www.dutchkazoo.com It’s not easy for a new boutique overdrive or distortion…

Golden Age Pre-73 MkIII, Ear Trumpet Edwina, and Avantone CR-14
The Front End
Strike up a conversation with anyone who records music and they’ll talk your ear off about mics and preamps. If…

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…

Jim Lauderdale
Harder Country
Jim Lauderdale has had three busy years. 2021’s Hope, which he calls “a very uplifting album,” emerged from the pandemic.…
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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

Jay Geils
More of That Jazz
Guitar maestro Jay Geils is a musical chameleon. In the ’70s, the J. Geils Band kicked out nine records that…

Jeff Plankenhorn’s “Alone At Sea”
Tasty slide on a square-neck Oahu Singer/songwriter Jeff Plankenhorn’s music is a rootsy mix that embraces blues and pop while…

D.K. Harrell and His ’76 ES-335
B.B. King of the Blues Award winner plays “Liquor Stores and Legs” Winner of the B.B. King of the Blues…

Pop ’N Hiss: Lou Reed
Definitive Riffs- Lou Reed’s Rock ’N Roll Animal and Live
Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

1978 Dean Z
The mid 1970s were a turbulent time in guitar history. The American guitar establishment – at least Gibson and Fender…

The Hagstrom EDP46 DeLuxe
World War II was responsible for an unbelievable amount of what we today know as the modern world, from computers…

Nick Moss – clean and tasty on “Scratch N Sniff”
Instro-rock, fully greased Get ready to have your funtime socks knocked off, ‘cuz this exclusive Nick Moss run through “Scratch…

Guild S-200 Thunderbird
Back in 1958, when Gibson introduced its revolutionary Explorer, Flying V, and mysterious Moderne, the public – rather like Queen…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Magnets and Magic
The PAF – Yesterday, Today
When it came to launching a solidbody electric guitar, Fender beat Gibson to the punch with its Broadcaster model in…

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…
Gretsch Roots Collection: Jim Dandy Flat-top, Dixie 6 Guitar-Banjo
Back to the Country
Gretsch Roots Collection: Jim Dandy Flat-top, Dixie 6 Guitar-Banjo Price: $239 retail (Jim Dandy Flat Top) and $499 retail (Dixie…

Maestro Comet Chorus and Discoverer Delay
Return to the Space(y) Age
Maestro’s Comet Chorus and Discoverer Delay, from the company’s Original Collection effects series, may have a retro-chic aesthetic, but they…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Jim Lauderdale
Sweet Music
“I consciously did not want to make a knockoff of a Gram record or an Elvis record.” Jim Lauderdale is…

Joe Negri
Royal Handyman, Jazz Legend
Long before becoming Handyman Negri on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” he had already been a teen guitar prodigy, first-generation bopper, and…
Misa Kitara
Axe of the Future?
Misa Kitara Price: $789 Info: www.misadigital.com. The guitar synthesizer has been around for more than 30 years and made significant…

The ‘‘Blackburst’’
Les Paul Standard of a Different Shade
Among experienced (and often jaded) veteran guitar collectors, precious few things create an adrenaline rush – strange one-offs, oddball brands that never quite blossomed,…













































