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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

Zemaitis’ CAG-200HS
Heart And Soul
The lutherie art of Tony Zemaitis resulted in some of the rarest, most admired, and most valuable of guitars. Among…

Henry Garza
From Tragedy to Revelation
Los Lonely Boys’ new album, Revelation, draws from several influences while retaining the band’s Texas/Mexican identity. Collaborating with a group…

Selmer Truvoice
Selectortone Automatic
Selmer Truvoice Selectortone Automatic, ca. 1961 Preamp tubes: one ECC83, two EF86 Output tubes: two EL34, cathode-bias Rectifier: GZ34 Controls:…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 3
Backbone Instruments 1962-’64
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…

The Epiphone ES-175 Reissue
Return of a Classic
There are plenty of affordable hollowbodies on the market, but Epiphone’s recent reissue of the Gibson ES-175 is almost a…

Chordal Colorations
Iconic Axes of Different Hues
Though their colors are complementary, Brian May’s Red Special and Brian Setzer’s ’59 Gretsch 6120 couldn’t be more different in…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS
Billy Gibbons
On The Move
Before ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons launched his career as guitarist and front man with a Texas-based group called the Moving…

Bryan Beller: Aristocratic Riffs
Time-Signature Shifts on “Aristoclub Bryan Beller and his Lull Custom BBMF5 demonstrate what it takes to keep up with Guthrie…

Bobby Eli
Philly-Soul Pioneer
With this year marking the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia International Records, the spotlight is on the songwriting team of Kenneth…

Shane Theriot
Diggin’ Daryl’s
What does it take to be the lead guitarist and musical director for one of pop’s most celebrated duos, transitioning…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

The Vox/Thomas Organ V-8 Berkeley Super Reverb
Organ Transplant
Most fans of classic British guitar amplifiers have heard the tale of how the great all-tube Vox models of the…

The “Okie Dokie Stomp” Esquire
Gate’s Swing
As a high-school student and emerging guitarist in Houston in the early ’60s, John Andrews couldn’t get a club gig…

The Beatles’ Casinos
Of all the guitars made famous by the Beatles, the only one that John, Paul, and George had in common…

Epiphone Zephyr De Luxe Regent and Zephyr Amplifier
The Zephyr De Luxe Regent was Epiphone’s second-from-the-top electric guitar produced from the late 1940s through the mid ’50s. The…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Gator Cases MiniVault
Rolling Rack
Every gigging guitarist who lugs their own gear (so, 95 percent of us) knows firsthand how instrument cases take a…

Airline Bojotar
Hybrid G-String Machine
There’s something about the Airline Bojotar that makes one ask, “What if Keef had added a high-G banjo string to…

McGregor Pedals’ Crunch and Crunch Plus
Transparent Pair
McGregor Pedals founder and self-proclaimed “Chief Mad Scientist” Garth McGregor Heslop hand-wires pedals in his Vancouver shop. Two of them…

Grez Mendocino Short Scale Bass
Time-Machine Tone
In the beginning, there was the Precision Bass. Following Leo Fender’s revelation, things branched out in all directions as builders…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

Effectrode Blackbird Vacuum Tube Preamp
Uncaged
In a nutshell, the Effectrode Blackbird is a tube amp’s entire preamp section in a floor unit. And just why…

Have Guitar Will Travel – Featuring 002 Bryan Kehoe
Bryan Kehoe went to school with Les Claypool and played with Exodus. He later joined M.I.R.V. and toured the world…

Joel McIver and Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath gets the full coffee-table history treatment in this hardcover book by Joel McIver, providing excellent photos and recollections…

Fender Acoustic Pro and Acoustic SFX
Curved Air
Fender has been making acoustic guitar amps for decades – now they’re reinventing the genre, and their designers deserve a…












































