-
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…

Jimmy Leslie
From the Bay to the Swamp and Back
“My intention was to do more of a singer/songwriter thing,” Jimmy Leslie says of his new CD, Surfin’ the Swamp.…

Big Knob Pedals
What’s in a Name?
Big Knob Pedals Price: Tube 808, $139; Echo Flex, $149; Vibe Tone, $159; Octavius, $129 (all list) Contact: www.bigknobpedals.com Gary…

Hints of Benson and Martino – Eric Zolan plays “D.D.L.O.D.”
NYC Jazzer Brings Tasty Jazz/Blues/R&B Confection Guitarist Eric Zolan knows jazz guitar has been cool, and his new album, “Calder’s…

Budda Verbmaster 112
Versatile 18-Watter
Budda Verbmaster 112 Price: $1,800 (street) Contact: budda.com As part of its Hand-Wired series, Budda has reissued the tube-rectified Verbmaster…

Lonnie Mack
Strike Like Lightning
Lonnie Mack hadn’t released an album in eight years when this comeback effort arrived in January of 1985. His first…

Austin Mics DIY Summer Reverb
for Kicks and More
Rick Wilkinson’s Austin Mics company, based in San Diego, specializes in do-it-yourself ribbon-microphone kits and DIY guitar pedals. His latest…
-
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

Kid Ramos’ Revelation!
West Coast legend melds blues with gospel Check out Kid Ramos using a ’56 Harmony H62 running through a vintage…
ZZ Top
The First 20 Years, Un-Remixed
Usually, the hook with boxed reissues is that they include previously unreleased songs, alternate takes, live material, and maybe some…

Have Guitar Will Travel 097 – Oliver Wood (the Wood Brothers)
In episode 97 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan speaks with Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers),…

Julian Lage
A Guitar Wizard Comes of Age
People having been raving about Julian Lage since he was a young guitar prodigy almost 20 years ago – he…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Three Small Tweeds
Fender Princeton, Deluxe, and Tremolux
From 1954 through ’59, the Fender Electric Instrument Mfg. Co. built guitar amplifiers with controls mounted atop using “chickenhead” knobs…

Ted Newman Jones’ West-Texas Guitars
Melodious Coterie
Boxcars Among the vast papers, drawings, photographs, and tapes at Texas Tech’s Crossroads of Music Archive is a guitar beloved…

The Martin OM-28
Although popular music of the 1920s featured the tenor banjo as the preferred rhythm instrument, the guitar’s popularity rose steadily…

Paul Bigsby’s Myrtlewood Guitars
= Few things are as satisfying as a guitar with a good story to tell. Some vintage guitars might be…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
-
Live Wire
-
Narrow(field) Win
-
Take Flight

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123
Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123 is made of 1/8″ aluminum with overlapping surfaces that can be adjusted from 13″ to…

L-Guitar Lance Glass
Tweak City
Builders love tweaking the creations of Leo Fender and his squad of ’50s innovators; California luthier Lance McCormick is making…

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…

Eastwood EEB-1 and EUB-1 Basses
Horizontal Vibe
Eastwood’s EEB-1 and the EUB-1 take their design inspiration from Ampeg’s quirky mid-’60s Horizontal Bass series, the brainchild of Dennis…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
-
More Personal
-
Rare Pioneer

The Birth of Newman Guitars
Newman Guitars was established in Austin, TX in 1977 by Ted Newman Jones. Ted was a pioneer of design…

2023 April Issue on Spotify
This month we feature Marty Stuart, Steve Vai, Sunny War, Merle Travis Bio, Kansas’ Leftoverture, Gary Moore, Big Bill Broonzy,…

The Grez Mendocino Junior
New Old-Soul
Luthier Barry Grzebik was a Jersey boy who moved to NorCal in his teens. When he began building guitars, he…

Robben Ford
Night In The City
A live recording can be a snapshot in time or the accumulated powers of an artist’s lifelong passion. Robben Ford…











































