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Taylor® Guitars Kicks Off 2026 With Two Major Launches – The Next Generation Of Its Flagship Grand Auditorium Guitars And New Gold Label Square-Shoulder Dreadnoughts
Taylor upgrades its most iconic models, adding “Next Generation” features to its Grand Auditorium body shape while expanding its recently introduced Gold Label Collection with traditional, square-shoulder dreadnoughts EL CAJON,…
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Thomas Custom Guitars
Rarities from the Pacific Northwest
Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich…
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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…

Tinsley Ellis’ new dimension
Unplugged, and Worth the Wait! A prominent blues artist since the late ’80s, Tinsley Ellis grabbed the ’37 National Style…

Alex Haddad and Kyle Lewis
Two Times the Vibes
Nashville’s Them Vibes hearken to the two-guitar teams of yesterday. Established by the songwriting duo of front man Brother Love…

Bell 30 RV Stereo-Reverb Combo
Accordion to Plan
1961 Bell 30 RV Stereo-Reverb • Preamp tubes: three 6EU7, one 7199, one 12AU7, one 12AX7 • Output tubes: four…

Brown’s Guitar Factory Lap Steel
Steel Yourself
At the beginning of amplified music, one of the first instruments to get a magnetic pickup was the Rickenbacker “frying…

Pop ’N Hiss: Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak
Fight Or Fall
At the dawn of 1976, Thin Lizzy was in trouble. Neither of the quartet’s previous two studio albums, Nightlife and…

Roman Bulakhov
Ukrainian Trailblazer
If there’s a 21st-century guitar style, Roman Bulakhov is a prime example, particularly how he fuses rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop…
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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…
ARTISTS

Name that Twang
The Guild-Duane Eddy Connection
The fledgling Guild company scored a coup when it signed Johnny Smith to an endorsement deal in 1956. Perched atop…

Classics: June 2022
David Hood’s Alembic Bass
Like the engineers and musicians who, in the ’60s and ’70s, helped create legendary songs at FAME Studios and its…
Ana Popovic
Memphis via Belgrade
Ana Popovic was but a toddler when she started to absorb major musical mojo through her father’s love of the…

Travis Stever
A Conceptual Break
Few rock bands have explored the “concept album” format as thoroughly as Coheed and Cambria; the band’s first seven full-length…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Geddy Lee
Bass Conservator
In its 40-plus years, Rush evolved on its own terms. Mixing rock and jazz influences, the band’s 19 studio albums…

1963 Fender Twin Reverb Prototype
The Twin has long been the flagship of Fender’s high-wattage amp lineup, and it achieved/retained that status through several iterations…

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…

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…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Lively Drives
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Posh Squash
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Chet Powered!

Heritage Guitars’ H-155M
Best-Kept Secret
Heritage Guitars still builds instruments by hand… in Kalamazoo. Like its veteran brethren in the industry, it focuses on craftsmanship,…

Fishman AFX Pedals
Tiny Tools
The shrinkologists at Fishman recently introduced a line of mini AFX pedals that do many jobs in an acoustic/electric guitar…

MXR Custom Shop Sub Machine Octave Fuzz
Lowdown And Nasty
Rising from the smoke and flames of the MXR Custom Shop is the pedal of which every fuzz freak dreams.…

SurfyBear Compact Reverb
Bringin’ Springs
Reverb got a big push into the world of guitar when Leo Fender installed Hammond’s Accutronics Type 4 Spring Reverb…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Revisiting Room 335
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Plus, a Pro’s List of Repair Glues
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Rising Tides

Knaggs Chena Old Violin
Righteous Axe
With notable string-bending monsters like Larry Mitchell, Eric Steckel, and Steve Stevens singing the praises of Knaggs Guitars, Peter Wolf…

Watkins Scout
Merit Badge
Watkins amps never landed big stars, or at least didn’t hold on to the endorsements of guitarists once they became…

Magnatone Twilighter
King of Vibrato
Magnatone Twilighter Price: $2,249 (12″ combo, list) Info: www.magnatoneusa.com. Magnatone is dead, long live Magnatone! The original Magnatone amp company…

John Notto double-up
Dirty Honey guitarist shares riffs from “Can’t Find the Brakes” John Notto used his road-dog Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul…












































