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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…
Instro-Meister Eric Penna
Blues Switch-Up in Trabants Eric Penna’s main gig is playing bass for the garage/surf band Insect Surfers, but he side-hustles…
Selmer Modele Jazz and Stimer M.10 Amp
Electricfying Early Jazz
In the 1930s, the quest for volume was the Holy Grail of guitar construction, as guitarists sought instruments to slice…
Steve Howell Fingerpicks “Stocking Feet Blues”
Solo acoustic homage to rural-blues great Steve Howell is a veteran of blues, rock, and jazz. Here, he fingerpicks a…
PRS S2 Custom 24-08
Plentiful Tones
As the youngest of the big three guitar manufacturers, PRS Guitars has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception…
The Rivolta Combinata Bass VII
Euro Flash
Rivolta’s Combinata VII bass takes ideas from Rickenbacker, Höfner, and various European builders lost to history and wraps them into…
Eddie Cochran’s Gretsch 6120
Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Twang
One night in the late 1950s, Eddie Cochran set the world alight onstage in the City of Angels. Though the…
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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
North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson
Smooth Sounds from a Vibratone Luther Dickinson sat with his new Vibratone V2 (being built with friend Chris Roberts) to…
George Kilby, Jr.
The Succinct Approach
George Kilby, Jr.’s Six Pack is, he says, a “collection of singles” rather than an EP or album. Kilby graduated…
Bernie Marsden
1951-2023
Bernie Marsden, one of the founding guitarists of Whitesnake, co-writer of the band’s massive hit “Here I Go Again,” and…
Fretprints: Dave Grohl
Beyond Grunge
“Alternative rock” – more descriptor than genre – was a reaction to hair bands, technical excess, and pop-metal formulae. It…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Gibson’s Budget Redux
The SB Series Guitars and Basses
As the 1960s rolled into the ’70s, Gibson had established itself in the electric-bass market with front-line instruments such as…
Classics: Mike Semrad’s ’57 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Mike Semrad’s musical roots run deep in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska – at least as far back as his…
Gibson EB-4L
Right Ideas, Wrong Era
The antennae of many guitar collectors/enthusiasts pop up when they encounter a Gibson-made instrument bearing a six-digit serial number with…
Park 45
Masked Marshall
When is a Marshall not a Marshall? When it’s a Park, of course! Though it might not scream “classic rock…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Martin OM-28 Authentic 1931
Vintage Revolution
If you’ve ever played a fine vintage guitar, you know how two things jump out at you immediately: 1) they’re…
Reddick Voyager CS
Boss Delay Machine DM-101 Reddick Echo Heaven
Love the simplicity and warmth of analog in your effects? Well, meet Boss’ new Delay Machine DM-101, housed in a…
Xotic ProVintage 5-String
Over the last few years Xotic has grown its rep thanks to top players who have endorsed its Leo-inspired guitars…
Fender Player II Series Telecaster
Twang Banger
As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
David Bromberg
Swearing On The Blues
David Bromberg likes to quote the great fiddler Johnny Gimble, who once famously said, “There’s only two kinds of music…
Randy Bachman
The Album Title Says It All
Canadian guitarist/guitar collector Randy Bachman is known worldwide for his classic licks in songs by the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner…
The Fender Showman
The Showman
In addition to several significant shifts in style and presentation, for Fender, the transition of the late 1950s into the…
Have Guitar Will Travel – 026 Featuring Ron Thorn
“Have Guitar Will Travel” host James Patrick Regan speaks with Ron Thorn, Principal Masterbuilder at the Fender Custom Shop. Before…
