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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …
Crazy Tube Circuit White Whale V2
Twin Tones
Introduced in 2017, Christos Ntaifotis’ original White Whale tremolo/reverb became one of his company’s best sellers. Its success, however, didn’t…
Joey Santiago
Pixies Repurpose
When Charles Thompson adopted the stage name Black Francis to play the Pixies’ first gig – at a bar in…
Magnatone Varsity
Less is More, Plus
Magnatone Varsity Price: $1,699 (list); $1,799 (as tested) Contact: www.magnatoneusa.com Magnatone earned a cult of admirers in the mid 20th…
Vox Real McCoy Chrome Wah Ltd and V846 Vintage Wah
Replica Treadles
Thanks to notable users ranging from Del Casher and Frank Zappa to Jimi Hendrix and Kirk Hammett, the “wah wah”…
Fretprints: Jack Wilkins
Farewell to a Modern Jazz Master
Jazz guitar recently lost one of the great ones. Jack Wilkins, champion of modern traditionalism (or is it traditional modernism?)…
Samantha Fish
Moving Faster
Barely over 30, Samantha Fish already has more than a decade’s worth of writing and performing in life’s rearview mirror.…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
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ARTISTS
Greg Lake
Welcome Back, My Friends Part 1 and 2
Bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, a force in the advent of progressive rock in the early 1970s with Emerson, Lake and Palmer…
Outlaws
Rising Tides
By the mid ’70s, Southern rock emerged as one of the most-exciting and successful genres in pop music, thanks to…
Fretprints: Led Zeppelin
One of the truly classic rock albums, Led Zeppelin’s IV brought together the band’s towering advances achieved with its first…
Charlie Ballantine
Midwest Expressive
Befitting a guitarist from America’s heartland, Charlie Ballantine’s mixes jazz, folk-rock, surf/instro, blues, pop, and country into a simmering pot…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
The ‘‘Blackburst’’
Les Paul Standard of a Different Shade
Among experienced (and often jaded) veteran guitar collectors, precious few things create an adrenaline rush – strange one-offs, oddball brands that never quite blossomed,…
Vox/Thomas Organ V-14 Super Beatle
Solid Sound
After producing some of the most-iconic guitar amplifiers of the early 1960s, Vox leaned unwittingly into a failing technology –…
Coral Electric Sitar
For centuries, Indian musicians have utilized the resonant sympathetic strings of the sitar to create the unique sounds of classical Indian…
Fender Custom Colors in the 1960s
Misty Lakes, Foamy Shores
In the 1950s, America’s fascination with the automobile was running at a fever pitch. The booming economy of the country’s…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Walrus Audio’s Mako Series MKII
Walrus Audio’s Mako Series MKII bolster the sounds of their first-gen predecessors, using altered algorithms, new controls, and better tonal…
Avante Gryphon
Game Changer?
Avante Gryphon Price: $1,495 (street) Info: www.veilletteguitars.com People bandy about the term “game changer” so often these days it barely…
EHX Tortion JFET Overdrive
EHX Tortion JFET Overdrive Price: $198.67 (list)/$179 (street) Contact: www.ehx.com Having teenage metal-shredders at home makes one appreciate that a…
ToneTron’s Billy-Rocker
Best Amp You've Never Heard of
ToneTron’s Billy-Rocker Price: $1,200 Info: www.tonetroamps.com. On a quiet residential street in Minneapolis lives a mad scientist. Erstwhile rockabilly guitarist…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero
Have Guitar Will Travel – Featuring 005 BottleRock Music Festival Pt. 2
James hits BottleRock again and speaks to blues-rock guitarist Hamish Anderson, singer/songwriter Matt Maeson, and Bay Area picker Milo Horstman.…
Dumble Garage Band Ripper
Orange Crushed
Through much of his career, Alexander Dumble made amps at his discretion, building one of his hallowed tone machines only…
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’
Bluesy and the Folksy
Meeting the demand for fans hankering for two titans of the blues to finally make an album together, Taj Mahal…
The Vox AC15
AMP-O-RAMA
The Vox AC30 grabbed most of the headlines for years, but many tonehounds have come to appreciate the sweet, juicy…
