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2026 February Issue on Spotify
This month, we feature Tinsley Wllis, Jimmy Aaughan, Duke Levine, Joshua Hedley, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Pink Floyd, Coyote Motel, Julian Lage, Jocelyn Gould, and more! Spotify is free or available…
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Rock ’n Roll Fantasy Camp Celebrates 30 Years of Changing Lives Through Music
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: For 30 years, Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp has done something no one thought possible — bringing everyday musicians into rehearsal rooms, studios, and onto stages with…
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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…

Jimi Hendrix Experience
Hollywood Bowl: August 18, 1967
Imagine a Jimi Hendrix Experience concert where the audience actually disliked the band. That’s the scenario here, a secretly recorded…

Elliot Easton
Driving Classic Cars
The Cars transcended the new-wave movement of the late ’70s by creating a never-duplicated sound. The band’s self-titled debut album…

Robert Cray
Four Nights Of 40 Years
Five-time Grammy winner Robert Cray has always played serious blues. But, early on, he sidestepped a genre that would descend…

Ethan Brosh
Living The Dream
In case you were wondering, shred is not dead, and Ethan Brosh is determined to keep it that way. The…

David Bromberg
Swearing On The Blues
David Bromberg likes to quote the great fiddler Johnny Gimble, who once famously said, “There’s only two kinds of music…

Phantom Guitarworks’ Teardrop
Droppin’ In On The ’60s
Phantom Guitarworks is dedicated to producing odd-shaped guitars based on designs introduced in the early 1960s like the Vox Mark…
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Classics: Jeremy Graf’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster
A lifelong vintage-guitar nut who has had “a million guitars,” Jeremy Graf’s all-time favorite is this 1961 Stratocaster. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Graf was just seven when, for reasons…
ARTISTS

Walter Strauss
Right-Hand Man
West Coast fingerstylist Walter Strauss has a remarkable picking technique – powerful and surprisingly percussive – as heard on his…
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…

Traynor YGM-4 Studio Mate
Behind The Eight Ball
Vintage-amp bargain hunters often compare the quality and features of smaller Traynor combos to Fenders and those of the larger…

David Bowie’s Young Americans
David Bowie was always creatively restless. The English musician decided to step away from the glam rock he’d recorded for…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Marty Friedman’s Melodic Grandeur
Vintage Strat, new style on “Illumination” A devout Jackson user with a longstanding signature model, Fender Strat that’s also heard…

Alive! Guitar Revived
The Tale of Frampton’s ’54 Les Paul Custom
Gifted to Peter Frampton after a 1970 Humble Pie concert at Fillmore West in San Francisco, for years, this ’54…

Instro-Meister Eric Penna
Blues Switch-Up in Trabants Eric Penna’s main gig is playing bass for the garage/surf band Insect Surfers, but he side-hustles…

The Gibson Starfire TR 1000 RVT
Trans-Galactic Toneway
Relatively unsung among early entrants to the field of solid-state guitar amplifiers, Gibson was the first high-output, high-quality manufacturer to…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Classic Character
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Synth Evo
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Musical, Minimalist
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Big Bottom

Gretsch G5260 Electromatic Jet Baritone
From Surf to Cinema
In the days before seven- and eight-string guitars, the easiest way to go low was to grab a baritone guitar.…

EVH Stripe Series Star
Romeo Delight
There was time when guitarists waited for new Van Halen records like ferrets on crack. After all, in the early…

Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5
Pretty, Stunning
Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5 Price: $3,199 (list) Contact: www.hullamps.blogspot.com A beat-up ol’ blackface amp can be a thing of beauty,…

ValveTrain PowerTrain Studio 20
Tube Savior
We’ve all watched the guitar amp deconstruct before our eyes, as pedals, preamps, and power amps all shrink – and…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Shoulders Of A Legend
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The Artist’s Way
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Life At Full Speed

Ed Sanner
Fuzz Redux
While not well-known in California guitar lore, Ed Sanner’s electronics designs have been heard by millions of guitar fans, and…

Kenny Brown
Mississippi Slide
The Black Keys’ latest album, Delta Kream, is a collection of blues standards from the Mississippi Hill Country. Drummer Patrick…

DSM Humboldt ClearComp 1078 Dynamic Threshold Compressor
Smooth and Sweet
When it comes to compressor pedals, the modern standard is to pursue studio-quality results in a pedalboard-friendly box. DSM Humboldt…
Three Larsons
At first glance, these three guitars appear to be a straightforward collection of different sizes of the same model. A…











































