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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…

Keeley Electronics Compressor Mini
The Tighten-Up
One entry in Keeley’s next-gen pedals, the Compressor Mini is an automatic “Manhattan-style” compression. The tiny tool’s secret is an…
Bruce and Butter
It would be an understatement to say that REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall and his 1965 Fender Jazz Bass, dubbed…

Gibson’s Experimental Archtop
Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s. The Gibson company refined the design with the addition of f-holes…

Looks Aren’t Everything
Ugly Amps Big Ugly 50 and 100
Steve O’Boyle got his start converting old tube PA heads into guitar amps. Flash forward nearly 17 years and O’Boyle…

Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane
Rough Mix, Pete Townshend, Empty Glass
Two important Townshend solo albums have received their long-awaited vinyl reissue. Internal friction gnawed at the Who in the mid…

UAFX Galaxy ’74 Tape Echo & Reverb
Space, Man
The original Roland Space Echo was a thing of sonic beauty, used by everyone from Brian Setzer to Bob Marley…
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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

Ken Fischer
1945-2006
Although by most estimates he produced fewer than 100 Trainwreck amps, Ken Fischer – tech, designer, and amp-maker – will…

George Fullerton
Guitar Icon
George Fullerton, whose decades-long association with Leo Fender earned the two early electric-guitar innovators a place in history, He died…

Cliff Goodwin
Double Trouble
Veteran rocker Cliff Goodwin has worked with everyone from Joe Cocker to Robert Palmer in a long, 4/4-heavy career. Now…

Walter Trout
“Reborn” and Rockin’
After having his life saved by a liver transplant and releasing Battle Scars, an album that chronicled his health struggles,…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Songbirds: Museum with a Mission
Treasures in Tennessee
Ask anyone who geeks out on vintage guitars, from the well-heeled collector to the dreamer whose prized possession is a…
Martin 00-18
They were days, before Kent State, when everywhere you looked, kids sat under trees, singin’ songs and swappin’ licks. Fresh-faced…

Jabo, Vince, and Broadcaster 0048
Special Addition
It’s routine for Vince Gill, as one of Nashville’s true connoisseurs of electric and acoustic gear, to receive tips about…

Dallas Shaftesbury 30
We mine the rich seam of obscure vintage American tube amps on a regular basis here in the pages of…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

The Collings I-35
Soul in the Details
Occasionally, in the world of guitars, events influence the market. The introduction of a new guitar can send ripples through…

Six-String Kicks
Wood from Famed Bowling Alley Set to Sing
Few things scratch America’s cumulative itch for nostalgia like Route 66 – the famed wagon-trail-cum-highway that offered passage to those…

Radial Tonebone Hot British V9 and North-Star
Tone Deep Down
Since the mid ’90s, Radial Engineering has been making audio products with a rep for superb performance and top-tier construction.…

Furch Blue Deluxe SW
Czech Mate
You might not recogonize the Furch brand, but the Czech Republic builder has spent that last 40-plus years gaining a…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Tonk Brothers/Washburn 5241
From the late 1920s through the early ’40s, Gibson produced instruments under a variety of brand names for retailers like…
Mike Stern
Mixed Sources
Mike Stern made his name playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, and others, carving a notable…

Steve Vai
Rock-Star DNA
Recorded in 1991, Steve Vai’s Gash is an homage to his rock-and-roll past. It’s also a passion project celebrating the…

Bryan Beller
Bass Aristocracy
If you love daredevil musicians, you’ll dig The Aristocrats. A contemporary-fusion trio, the band includes guitar monster Guthrie Govan (VG,…











































