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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. …

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…

Collings OM1 T
Faultless Flat-Top?
To the hands, hearts, and minds of many an experienced guitarist, an OM-size body with a 25.5″ scale feels the…

Guild’s S-100/S-200 “Kickstand” Models
Much like several other well-known manufacturers, Guild has, through the years, changed ownership, locations, and identities. Guild was founded in…

Ace Frehley
The Space Man’s Cover Plan
Few guitarists in hard rock have proven as influential as Ace Frehley; just about any guitarist interviewed after the mid…

1939 Gibson Super 400 Premier
The Gibson Super 400 debuted in 1935 as the first production-model 18″ archtop guitar with f-shaped sound holes; 30 years…

Dave Murphy: Acoustic Country!
Classic Ballad Style Country/folk/rock singer/guitarist Dave Murphy wrangled guitarist Chris Tarrow for this take on “Josephine,’ from Dave’s new…
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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

Have Guitar Will Travel 070 – JJ Wilde and J.D. Smigelski
The latest episode of “Have Guitar Will Travel” finds host James Patrick Regan speaking with indie rocker JJ Wilde and…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Nate Westgor
“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Nate Westgor Season 01 Episode 01 In Episode 1 of “Buy That Guitar,”…

Andy Gill
The Gang’s All Here
One of the most original-sounding guitarists to emerge from the post-punk/new wave movement of the late ’70s was Gang of…

Fretprints: Mick Ralphs
Delivering in Bad Company
Unabashedly British and irresistibly swaggering, Bad Company personified ’70s arena rock. Detractors denounced them as machismo, but fans have bought…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 9
Late ’60s: Baldwin And Decline
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…

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…

Metropolitan Tanglewood
A Rare Modern Map
Many guitar aficionados are aware of the instruments proffered by Houston’s Alamo Music. The Texas manufacturer has created unique low-end…

Robin’s ’80s Import Basses
While the Robin guitar brand’s reverse “imported then domestic” chronology has been documented in this space, the basses shown here…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Empress ParaEq MKII Deluxe and Heavy Menace
In The Details
It’s cliché to call a parametric EQ a “Swiss Army knife,” but with Empress’ updated ParaEq MKII Deluxe, the comparison…
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…

Fender’s 60th Anniversary Jazz Bass
Golden-Era Glory
Though it looks to be straight from a ’60s catalog, Fender’s 60th Anniversary Jazz Bass isn’t a true reissue. Rather,…

The Orange Acoustic Pedal
Juice To Spare
Since the dawn of amplification, engineers have sought a better mousetrap – a more-transparent signal chain that preserves signal and…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

João Erbetta and Pete Curry
Los Angeles
Guitarist Erbetta has composed and produced film scores in his native Brazil, while Angelino Pete Curry plays bass with Los…

Airline ’59 Custom 1P and Epiphone ’61 Casino 50th Anniversary
Having a Rave-Up!
Fifteen years ago, you couldn’t give away some of the less-popular guitars from the ’60s, whether they were models with…

The Paul Hartmann Custom Manhattan
Not Your Granddaddy’s Semi-Hollow
The Paul Hartmann Custom Manhattan Price: $3,895 as tested Contact: www.phguitars.com Luthier Paul Hartmann’s Custom Manhattan is a classic semi-hollowbody,…

Ewan Currie
Hairy Tones in The Sheepdogs
There are a lot of retro bands, but few get the sonics correct. Hailing from central Canada, The Sheepdogs conjure…












































