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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. …

Radial Tonebone Shotgun and Mix-Blender
Swiss-Army Stompboxes
Whether it’s due to shrinking pedalboard real estate, shrinking discretionary budgets, or both, stompboxes that serve more than one function…

Vintage Instrument Research
An Ever-Changing Landscape
Fretted instruments can be examined in much the same way as zoological taxonomist or forensic pathologist would approach them. They…

Selmer Truvoice
Selectortone Automatic
Selmer Truvoice Selectortone Automatic, ca. 1961 Preamp tubes: one ECC83, two EF86 Output tubes: two EL34, cathode-bias Rectifier: GZ34 Controls:…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 2
The Black Bison Leads the Herd
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…

Ana Popovic
Relentless
Rising victoriously after 14 cancer treatments, Ana Popovic continues to push the boundaries of blues-rock. Her latest album tells the…

A Little More Better
CopperSound’s Foxcatcher Boost/Overdrive and Polaris Chorus/Vibrato
Offering hand-built pedals from their shop in Easton, Massachusetts, CopperSound seems to be finding a niche among small-batch builders, namely…
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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

Freddie King’s Gibson ES-345 Keeps on Playin’
Family Ties
Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a…
Bobby Black
Steel Before and After Commander Cody
When he got the invitation, Bobby Black wasn’t sure. The pedal-steel virtuoso, a 20-plus-year veteran of San Francisco’s music scene,…

Ty Tabor
On A Roll
King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor is on a roll. Despite the band being on hiatus due to bassist Dug Pinnick’s…

Duke Levine
Bonnie’s New Guitar Man
After 29 years on the road, Bonnie Raitt guitarist George Marinelli decided to take a break. Stepping into the role…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

1933 Gibson L-00
While most of the instruments featured in this space are high-end, often elaborately ornamented models that were expensive when new…

Q&A With George Gruhn: Formica Pickguard on an Early Les Paul?
And Not-So-Strange Variations on an ’87 LP Standard
I’ve just completed restoring a very early Les Paul that was horribly damaged and poorly repaired, then painted black! I’m…

VG Q&A: Jimi Flip
Plus, Precision Bass rests and an odd Galliano
I’ve never read why Jimi Hendrix played and set up a right-hand Strat to play left-handed. Surely, he could’ve found…
1944 Martin 00-28
This Martin 00-28 is a highly unusual instrument. Made as part of a group of six created with shop-order number…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Mesa Boogie California Tweed 6V6 2:20 1×10 Combo
Ankle Biter
Classic Fender tweed amps are known for fat, warm clean tones, but even more for their raunch when cranked. Mesa…

The Orange Acoustic Pedal
Juice To Spare
Since the dawn of amplification, engineers have sought a better mousetrap – a more-transparent signal chain that preserves signal and…

The JangleBox J-Boost
Seamless Sheen
Twelve years ago, Janglebox founder Steve Lasko set out to create effects pedals that capture the sparkling clean chime made…

Looks Aren’t Everything
Ugly Amps Big Ugly 50 and 100
Steve O’Boyle got his start converting old tube PA heads into guitar amps. Flash forward nearly 17 years and O’Boyle…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

The Burke Guitar
The Axe that Time Forgot
For more than 60 years, aluminum has been used as a component in guitar construction. Exactly whose idea it was…

Bob Spalding: Instrumental Legend
Ventures Guitarist plays “New Space” sampler With a catalog that extends more than 60 years, The Ventures just keep on…

Gretsch 6130 Round-up
Head ‘em out!
The romantic concept of the “Old West” – an enduring element of American pop culture – was spurred by pulp…

JHS Charlie Brown Overdrive
Beautiful Noise
While few guitarists get the opportunity to plug into every vintage Marshall amp and hear their distinguishing tonal characteristics, most…











































