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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…

Reunited
Bruce Forman Honors Barney Kessel
From 1957 to ’60, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Shelly Manne recorded four LPs for Contemporary Records…

The Dean Ween Group
The Dean Ween Group’s debut showcases all the genre-hopping shenanigans that became the stock in trade of Ween’s first band…
Black Joe Lewis
Garage Soul
Eectric Slave is the third album by Black Joe Lewis, and marks a return to the sound of his roots…

Star Stomps
Famous Sounds Abound in New Book
Stompboxes inspire their own special mania. While the allure of guitars is obvious with their colorful, curvaceous looks, effects are…

Ernie Ball MVP Volume/Gain Expression Pedal
Total Control
Ernie Ball’s MVP Volume/Gain Expression Pedal Price: $179 (list); $129.99 (street) Info: www.ernieball.com. Just when you thought you were done…

Classics: July 2022
Jack Jones Doubleneck
In November of 1954, 16-year-old Jack Jones walked into a Seattle pawn shop and noticed a strange doubleneck guitar. “It…
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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,…
ARTISTS

Fearless Guitar Heroes
Metallica’s Hammett and Hetfield Stage Legendary Solidbodies
Metallica emerged as the antithesis to corporate rock and the “hair metal” that dominated L.A.’s Sunset Strip in the ’80s.…

Andy Peake – Roots Without Boundaries
Andy Peake – Roots Without Boundaries Andy Peake is a drummer/percussionist with a long list of accomplished-guitarist friends. For proof,…

Richie Kotzen
Fight For Familiarity
So he’s not burning up the Top 40, but Richie Kotzen has been a soul-crooning monster guitarist for a very…

John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson’s Gypsy Jazz Orchestra
Call it a “Gypsy jazz wall of sound.” John Jorgenson’s new album, Istiqbal Gathering, features the master guitarist backed by…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Yamaha SA-15
Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies,…

Adam Levy’s Wistful Elegance
Vintage ES-335 on “And They All Sang” Famous for supplying charismatic guitar parts while backing Nora Jones and Tracy Chapman,…

Paul Bigsby’s Myrtlewood Guitars
= Few things are as satisfying as a guitar with a good story to tell. Some vintage guitars might be…

Gibson’s Depression-Era Exports
Many aren’t aware that some of the archtop guitars Gibson produced during the Depression were marketed under different brand names,…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom
Rockin’ Down the House
Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom Price: $999 (Space Cadet)/$699 (MVX-15) Contact: www.musicvox.com For nearly two decades, Musicvox’s designs…

Line 6 Catalyst 100
Natural Vibe
The latest array of amp modelers from Line 6 – pioneers in the field – is the Catalyst, in 60-,…

Mojo Hand Octaverse
Reverse Gears
The Mojo Hand Octaverse is billed as a “dedicated reverse octave delay,” which is a mouthful, but accurate. It offers…

Mu-FX Tru-Tron 3X
Get Tha Funk Out
The Mu-FX Tru-Tron 3X Price: $369.63 Contact: www.mu-fx.com. Think funk. Think Bootsy Collins’ wacked-out Parliament Funkadelic Space Bass lines. Think…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

The Watkins Clubman
The hokey, amphetamine-tempo’d folk music known as “skiffle” was all the rage with Britain’s youth in 1955, and rock and…

Rocky Mountain Slides Company Firecracker Aluminum Slides
Slick Slide
Rocky Mountain Slides Company’s new “Firecracker Aluminum Slides” may look like other guitar slides but it is internally flared in…

Marshall’s DSL1C
Small Stack
For those who love classic British tone, nothing beats the sound of a Marshall stack cranked to 10. Unfortunately, unless…













































