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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…
Dan’s Guitar RX: Building a From-Scratch Class Project
Rock-And-Roll High School(er)
Students at Federal Hocking High School here in Athens County, Ohio, are given the opportunity to propose internships in work that…
Arlen Roth
Flourishing After Adversity
By any measure, Arlen Roth’s recent spate of creativity would be impressive. It began with his solo acoustic CD, Drive…
Albert King’s THC Flying V
Coterie Complete
Robert Johnson has been a fixture in the vintage-guitar community for more than a half-century. As a player and music…
Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker
Basement Jams & Blown Speakers
1966 Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker Combo The days when a kid would break out the soldering iron and take on a…
Coco Montoya
Writing on the Wall
Since his debut album in 1995, Coco Montoya – who cut his teeth with fellow southpaw Albert Collins and John…
’66 Epiphone Casino
In the Epiphone line of the 1960s, the Casino occupied middle ground. In appearance as well as electronics it ranked…
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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
Tracy G
Dio Disciple
Ronnie James Dio had a knack for collaborating with talented guitarists – Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow, Tony Iommi in Black…
Pop ’N Hiss: Lou Reed
Definitive Riffs- Lou Reed’s Rock ’N Roll Animal and Live
Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly…
Britt Daniel
Spoonful of Sounds
If the Beatles were still around, chances are they’d be checking out Spoon. Like the Fab Four, the group revels…
Andy Bassford
The Harder They Strum
Legendary fish-out-of-water reggae guitarist Andy Bassford has been a first-call sideman for decades. Now, he’s stepping out front with his…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
National Style O
Although it has never been the favorite guitar of Hawaiian players, National’s Style O, with its shining metal body and…
The Strat in Transition
Leap Forward, Step Back
Believing the long-term survival of his company hinged on creating the world’s best electric guitar, in 1953, Leo Fender set…
Eko’s “Celluloid” ’60s Basses
Cool or Gaudy?
By the early 1960s, Europe’s industrial bases had mostly recovered from World War II. Many musical-instrument manufacturers stuck to products…
The Pedulla Buzz Bass
Fast and Fretless
Introduced in 1980, the M.V. Pedulla Buzz Bass is one of the most-enduring examples of an upscale model offered fretless.…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter
Tremolo Transformed
Tremolo is a simple effect: the amplitude, or volume, of an incoming signal is raised and lowered in pulsating waves.…
Mu-FX Octave Divider
The Mu Is Back
This is rocket science. Or at least as close as a stompbox gets. Sure, building a pedal that tweaks a…
Guild’s B-240EF
Stop Your Frettin’
It would be easy to look at the price of Guild’s B-240EF and assume it’s just another low-end acoustic/electric bass…
Mr. Mojo Sustainin’
The Teye Jazz Cat
Teye Wijnterp is a top-shelf guitar craftsman whose work brings to mind Keith and Ronnie’s famous Zemaitis guitars of the…
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Willie Nelson
Soon after arriving in Nashville in 1960, Willie Nelson signed a songwriting contract with Pamper Music, co-owned by Ray Price,…
The Rolling Stones
Rolling In The Blues
Mick Jagger’s famous 1968 statement – “What’s the point in listening to us doing ‘I’m A King Bee’ when you…
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…
George Gruhn
How a Zoologist Became a Guitar animal
If you bumped into a bearded, corduroy-jacketed George Gruhn in a Nashville coffee shop, you might think you’d stumbled upon…
