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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…
Fender’s First Reissues
The CBS Era Concludes in Style
By the late 1970s, cumulative changes in the details of the various classic guitar models on the market – Fender’s…
Rex Brown
Still Smoking
Throughout his career, Rex Brown has delivered the low-end as the bassist for Pantera, Down, and Kill Devil Hill. But…
Joe Negri
Royal Handyman, Jazz Legend
Long before becoming Handyman Negri on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” he had already been a teen guitar prodigy, first-generation bopper, and…
1965 Gibson Thunderbird
Cardinal Red Rarity
Looking to finally make a real dent in Fender’s solidbody bass market, in the mid ’60s Gibson launched a line…
Fender 6G6-C Bassman
Brown Sound
There are several revered classics amid the ever-evolving circuits in the amplifier known as the Bassman, but one of the…
The Gretsch 6120 Tenor
This 1958 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 four-string tenor guitar is a very rare variation of the model. Gretsch built other…
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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
The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part Two
Last month, we began looking at some of the more entertaining fretted instrument advertising of the 20th century, in what…
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…
Between Gibbons and Holdsworth
John Ziegler Of Volto!
John Ziegler’s band, Volto!, emerged from L.A.’s fusion scene with bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Danny Carey, who’s primary gig…
Hands On
Lenser Twists Musician Portraiture
In 2012, photographer Marc Mennigmann conceived of shooting musician portraits in a very different way – looking beyond faces and…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 3
Backbone Instruments 1962-’64
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…
Joey Molland
The word “underrated” is belabored in music journalism, but Joey Molland was just that. As co-guitarist in Badfinger, he was…
The Modulus Graphite Flight 6 Monocoque
High-/Low-Tech
In guitar history, irony is almost always the result of circumstances. The market changes overnight or someone makes a mistake…
Vox AC50
Vox AC50 Preamp tubes: one ECC82 (12AU7), three ECC83 (12AX7) Output tubes: two EL34s, fixed-biased Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Volume, Treble…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Louis Electric Gattone
Play The Blues
Louis Electric Gattone Price: $2,595 (list) Contact: www.louiselectricamps.com Got the blues? Have we got the amp for you. Louis Rosano…
Jackson Jeff Loomis Soloist SL7
Seven Up
If you’ve at all followed crunchy guitar playing for the past 25 years, you know players often delve into ranges…
Kiesel JB5 Classic
The look and feel of Kiesel’s JB5 Classic align well with what a bassist expects when they gaze upon it…
Breedlove FF and KO Mandolins
New Traditionalists
Breedlove FF and KO Mandolins1 Price: FF $2,265 (list), $1,699 (street); KO $1,999 (list), $1,499 (street) Info: www.breedlovemusic.com. Unlike luthiers…
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Rare Pioneer
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…
Fanny’s June Millington
Grrrl Power’s First Flash in Rock
Before The Runaways, before the Go-Go’s and Bangles, and before there were Riot grrrls, there was Fanny. One of the…
Danelectro’s Four-String Basses
The guitars and basses made by Danelectro in the ’60s epitomized “no frills.” And though they were considered the nadir…
