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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…

TWA Hot Sakè and Dynamorph
Circuit City
Totally Wycked Audio (TWA) builds a line of cool stompboxes that consistently push the envelope in the right direction. Two…
Etched in Time
“Signature” Gibsons from the Early Days of Cable
In 1984, Christian Roebling went from being just another guy watching TV to creating what was likely the first television…

Walter Jr.
A Taste of (and from) Louisiana
Walter Jr.’s blend of soul, funk, R&B, and everything-in-between never wanders far from home. It’s not hard to tell from…

Jorge Glem: Cuatro Mastery
Brooklyn-Cumaná Jorge Glem uses his Venezualan cuatro to show us some of “Matapalo y Fuga,” from his new duet album…

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…

The Carr Skylark
Desert-Island Amp
The Carr Skylark Price: $2,390 (list) Contact: www.carramps.com If you could own only a single guitar amp – horror of…
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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
Mary Osborne
Charlie’s Angel
Jazz guitar pioneer Mary Osborne was the only female guitarist to realize a significant impact on jazz in the 1940s…

Adrian Smith
Different Scales
Guitarists usually spend years learning their scales, but Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith enjoys scales of the aquatic kind. In his…

Stroger lays it down on “Bob’s Back in Town”
Chicago Blues Mainstay and His Legendary Bass Enjoy as Chicago mainstay bassist Bob Stroger uses his 1960 Jazz Bass (with…

Grant Geissman
Still Feeling Good
Admired for the iconic phase-shifter solo on Chuck Mangione’s 1978 smash “Feels So Good,” Grant Geissman can today look back…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Teisco Del Rey Basses
’60s Egalitarianism from Japan
Teisco Del Rey basses from the 1960s are exemplary of the Japanese-made instruments that swept into the American market like…

Gibson’s Mastertone Banjos
This Gibson RB-3 five-string from 1925 is a rare piece, as is any five-string banjo from the era dominated by…

Watkins Rapier 33
If you were an American teenager in the late 1950s or early ’60s, and you wanted to play the new…

Jussi Jaakonaho’s beguiling “Beauty Box”
Masterful Tapestry Soak it in as Jussi Jaakonaho and his 1970 Gibson SG Standard jam on ”Beauty Box” through a…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Setting Up Effects
Certain Guidelines Apply to a Signal Chain, But Your Ears Are the Ultimate Judge
One question frequently asked by guitar players is how to set up effects and arrange them in a proper signal…

BC Audio Grand Prix 100
Hand-Wired Heaven
For the past few years, builder Bruce Clement of BC Audio has been getting attention for his killer-sounding and meticulously…

Elektron Analog Drive
Big Swede
Take a look at your pedalboard. You probably have three or four overdrives and fuzzes hooked up – and are…

Fender PM-2
Sitting-Room Savoir Faire
Once wildly popular among everyone from drawing-room dilettantes to road-hardened bluesmen shuffling the dusty byways, parlor-sized guitars fell out of…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer

Jim Kelley Reverb Model
Legend, Resurrected
Jim Kelley began making his highly acclaimed guitar amplifiers 1978. His big revelation came while he was still doing mods…

2021 November Issue on Spotify
This month we feature Night Ranger’s Brad Gillis, Eric Bibb, Rick Vito, K.K. Downing, Bobby Eli, Guy King, Pasquale Grasso,…

Billy Strings
Live, Volume 1
Billy Strings has travelled far from his days as bluegrass flatpicking prodigy, though that style remains a linchpin of his…

2021 October Issue on Spotify
This month we feature Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn, ZZ Top, Brian May, Eric Clapton, Robben Ford,…













































