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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…
Music Man Game Changer
Twelve Tons of Tone
Music Man Game Changer Price: $2,275 (street) Contact: www.gamechanger.music-man.com Since the introduction of the electric guitar, builders have sought ways…
Classics: Mike Semrad’s ’57 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Mike Semrad’s musical roots run deep in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska – at least as far back as his…
The Magical Philosophy Of Slide
Time, Touch, and Reverence
In ancient Africa, when early man first dragged a flat rock across a string tied to a stick, he couldn’t…
Effector 13 Improbability Drive
“Beam Me Up, Jimi” – The Effector 13 Improbability Drive – spacey, fuzzy, and funky
We understand how you might react. “Another drive pedal?” There are so many… a lot of them similar, or nearly…
Friedman IR-X Dual Channel Preamp
Stack in the Box
Most guitar-electronics companies make a direct-recording preamp, many promising to provide ultimate distortion and overdrive via impulse responses (IR) or…
30 Most Valuable Guitars
To mark VG’s 30th anniversary, we dig into the 30 most-valuable production guitars.
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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
Joe Satriani
The Artist’s Way
Whether orchestrating guitar instrumentals, writing comic books, or bringing his imagination to the canvas with acrylic paint, Joe Satriani has…
George Kilby, Jr.
The Succinct Approach
George Kilby, Jr.’s Six Pack is, he says, a “collection of singles” rather than an EP or album. Kilby graduated…
Alex Machacek
Stripped Down
When you get the thumbs-up from icons like John McLaughlin and Chick Corea, it’s got to feel good. But, fusion…
Douglas Naselroad
Instrumental Healing
Music heals the soul. For many, crafting the instruments that make music has healing power, too. In 2012, the non-profit…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
New Lease on Life
The Sound of Rock Gets a Brush-Up
If restoring dusty, neglected old tube amps built more than half a century ago isn’t challenging enough, restoring amps with…
Gibson EB-4L
Right Ideas, Wrong Era
The antennae of many guitar collectors/enthusiasts pop up when they encounter a Gibson-made instrument bearing a six-digit serial number with…
Italian Smorgasbord
The Goya Rangemaster 116 SB
American guitars made in the 1950s and ’60s constitute an almost-holy canon, yet most players in that era took their…
Ro-Pat-In’s First Electric Spanish
Granddaddy to the Stars!
The story of George Beauchamp’s invention of what would become the first commercially successful electric guitar is shrouded in the…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Reverend’s Rick Vito Signature Soul Shaker
Built For Speed
Blues-/roots-rocker Rick Vito knows what he wants from a guitar, and the Reverend Soul Shaker is proof. An art deco-inspired…
Guild Standard Series Acoustics
Legacy, Cont’d?
Founded by a jazz guitarist as jazz-box builder, the Guild company also built a solid reputation with its ’50s acoustic…
Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-M
Satisfying Source
Can’t get no satisfaction from your fuzz pedal? Step back to the source, with Maestro’s new Fuzz-Tone. The FZ-M is…
Axe-Calibur Guitar Stand
While guitar stands are a dime a dozen, few bring a sense of style nice enough for the living room.…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Freddie King’s ’73 ES-355
Thinline Crown
Influenced by Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others including jump-blues…
James Elkington
Windy City Diversity
James Elkington tweaked the paradigm when he began working at a luthier shop before hitting his stride as a guitarist.…
EHX Good Vibes, Tone Corset
Rawk Boxes
The musical spirit of the ’60s and ’70s lives again in two of EHX’s latest stompboxes: the Good Vibes analog…
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…
