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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…
PureSalem Bette
Unfiltered Garage Rock
If you’ve ever worked in the music retail field, you know that not everybody shares your excellent taste in guitars.…
Fender’s 6G9 Tremolux
Preamp tubes: two 7025, two 12AX7 Output tubes: two 6BQ5/EL84 Rectifier: GZ34 Controls: Bright channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; Normal channel:…
Guthrie Trapp
Life After Dark
Guthrie Trapp has spent the last couple decades in Nashville, supporting major acts in the studio and on the road.…
Heil Talk Box
When Peter Frampton began using the Heil Talk Box in 1974, he remembers it being viewed with skepticism as an…
Kay Jazz Special and Value Leader
Kay entered the electric bass market in the mid 1950s with the K162, which later morphed into the similar K5965…
Check This Action: One Sax, Three Guitars
It starts with a tenor saxophone floating above spare electric guitar arpeggios. After a dipsy-doodle cadenza, the sax states a…
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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
Joe Satriani
Creativity and Chaos
Calling any player “the hardest working guitarist in the business” is rather like referring to one as the “best guitarist”…
Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker
“Blue Mirror” jam from “The Weight of the World” Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker grabbed his pearl-front Zemaitis…
Rocky Athas’ Texas ’Tude!
Genuine Lone Star Jams Dallas guy Rocky Athas built a career playing blues in the vain of T-Bone and SRV,…
Doug Doppler
Art Appreciation, Import-Style – Doug Doppler’s Ibanez Collection
Doug Doppler recalls how, at age five, his first swimming lesson fell on the same day as his first guitar…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Yamaha Image
Some years back, an insurance company promoted itself as “the quiet company.” While they probably wouldn’t like to hear it,…
Philip Sayce – Strat monster!
Post-SRV blues-rock wizard Godmonster beast on his (two) ’63 Fender Strats, Philip Sayce plays the one he calls Mother running…
The Norma EG 470-2 Deluxe
Everyone of a certain age – and no doubt some younger folks – remembers the sage career advice given young…
Thomm Jutz plays “Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies”
Flatpicked English folk with an Appalachian touch Sparse and haunting, Thomm Jutz and his ’48 Martin D-18 share a solo…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Area 51 The Alienist Voicing Boost
Manmade Tone Monster
Gather ’round, children, for a scary bedtime story. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as a high-gain…
Fano Alt de Facto RB6
Classic That Never Was
Fano Alt de Facto RB6 Price: $2,495 Info: fanoguitars.com In recent years, a trend in the guitar realm has been…
Kramer 84 and Pacer Vintage
Tap, Shred, Dive!
Kramer 84/Pacer Vintage Price: $1,166 (84); $1,267 (Pacer Vintage) Info: kramerguitars.com It’s hard to think of ’80s guitars as vintage,…
Guild’s Starfire I DC GVT
Big Green Monster
Guild’s Newark Street guitars are a line of lower-priced instruments anchored by a reissue of the classic Starfire; the most…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Davy Knowles
Manx Bluesman
The Isle Of Man, which sits in the middle of the Irish Sea, measures 15 by 30 miles. The…
Mike Stern
Mixed Sources
Mike Stern made his name playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, and others, carving a notable…
Betty Davis and Mahalia Barnes
Nasty Girl
Betty Mabry was known far and wide by the sobriquet of the Nasty Girl. She earned the moniker for being…
D’Angelico’s Deluxe Atlantic Baritone
Lowdown
Baritone guitars have been around for decades, traditionally featured in Nashville and Hollywood studios and elsewhere to “sweeten” a track…
