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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…
Eddie Cochran’s Gretsch 6120
Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Twang
One night in the late 1950s, Eddie Cochran set the world alight onstage in the City of Angels. Though the…
Chris Duarte
Ain’t Giving Up
After Stevie Ray Vaughan’s death in 1990, an army of Strat cats rushed into the breach, vying to be the…
Gretsch Country Gentleman
Consider American guitar manufacturers that have been in business during the last 100 years and the different instruments they’ve produced.…
Burton, Garrett, Lee, and Wilcox Join Forces
Telecaster Summit
For guitar lovers and roots-music fans, the place to be in July ’13 was British Columbia. The Vancouver Island MusicFest…
LsL Instruments’ Soledad
T-Bone with a Side of Sustain
Based out of Santa Clarita, California, LsL Instruments was founded by Lance and Lisa Lerman in 2008 after many years…
Steve Vai
Inviolate
After decades of technical shred-dom, Vai returns to his musical mindset prior to David Lee Roth, composing soundtrack-scaled material that…
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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,…
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ARTISTS
Dallas Perkins dazzles on “Mexican Puppets”
Dallas Perkins: Elemental Experiments Progressive-rock shredder Dallas Perkins brings it with “Mexican Puppets,” a track from his new instrumental album,…
Todd Park Mohr
Steady Base
The latest album from Colorado’s Big Head Todd and the Monsters, New World Arisin’, delivers what fans have come expect…
Fab Four’s Big Three
The Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” Guitars, 50 Years On
For Americans, the legend of the Beatles has a very specific starting moment: 8 p.m., February 9, 1964. That Sunday…
Debashish Bhattacharya
Subcontinental Slide
Not many musicians can claim to have invented an entire style of music, but Indian guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya is one.…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Gibson M-III Standard
Missing the Mark(et)
Gibson’s bread and butter has long been tried-and-true designs that represent remarkable innovations – even if they date back to…
National Westwood
Whether Valco – the company that made National guitars in the 1950s and ’60s – was actually inspired by U.S.…
Danelectro’s Four-String Basses
The guitars and basses made by Danelectro in the ’60s epitomized “no frills.” And though they were considered the nadir…
Gibson Custom Colors in the 1960s
Burning Embers, Chilled Whites
Unlike its rival from the West Coast, Gibson did not readily embrace the concept of offering custom-color finishes. It wasn’t…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Seymour Duncan’s Whole Lotta Humbucker, 59/Custom Hybrid Pickups
Dream Babies
Seymour Duncan’s Whole Lotta Humbucker Price: $94 59/Custom Hybrid Pickups Price: $89 Info: www.seymourduncan.com. In lean times, who can afford…
The Fender Bullet Deluxe/JP-90
No Frills, Didn’t Fly
Fender has tried more than once to market basses with a low-budget vibe. And while the idea is…
Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay
Double Echo
Based on the famed Roland SDE-3000 rack unit, Boss’ SDE-3 combines some classic delay sounds of the 1980s, updated with…
Epiphone 1963 Firebird V
Legacy-Worthy
Looking to up the ante in the market battle with Fender, in October of 1962, Gibson CEO Ted McCarty asked…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Eastman MD515
The Mando-lorian
Guitarists can expand their instrumental range in several ways, from bass to banjo and even the diminutive mandolin, where guitar-like…
Classics: July 2021
Warren Garstecki’s 1932 Gibson HG-22
Warren Garstecki is a collector who keys on vintage Gibsons with interesting histories, like the HG-22. Introduced in 1929, the…
Big Beat Boys
Musings on Fab and Gear, 50 Years Ago
Americans tend to link the beginnings of the Beatles phenomenon to a specific date – February 9, 1964, when the…
Pop ’N Hiss: Santana’s Caravanserai
Pageant of Enlightenment
By the summer of 1971, 24-year-old Carlos Santana and his band – Neal Schon on guitar, drummer Michael Shrieve, Gregg…
