• Super PickupGiveaway 2025

    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…

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Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo

Tone to the Third Squared

December 16, 2014 · Pete Prown

The Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo Price: $491.84 list (Epitome) and $292.35 list (Tone Tattoo) Info: www.ehx.com The concept is smart…

AnalogMan Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup

AnalogMan Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup

Mr. Clean

March 16, 2016 · Zac Childs

AnalogMan’s Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup Price: $135 Info: www.buyanalogman.com Jim Weider is one of the few guitarists who can…

In Detail: Gibson’s 1954-’58 Les Paul Junior

April 26, 2022 · Ward Meeker

In 1952, Gibson’s Les Paul model guitar was brand spanking new.  But it wasn’t cutting-edge. True, it was the company’s…

Check This Action: My Kind of Blues

June 19, 2024 · Dan Forte

The great Junior Parker sang, “You will feel like dying when you get these kind of blues.” But he sang…

Egnator Home Thumb

Egnater Tweaker 40

Small, But Mighty

August 18, 2014 · Pete Prown

Egnater Tweaker 40 Price: $1,149 (approx. $800 street). Info: egnater.com Egnater has just amplified its Tweaker line with a new…

Frank Gambale Vintage Guitar magazine

Frank Gambale

Soulmine

December 11, 2013 · Oscar Jordan

Frank Gambale has had an amazing career playing the music he loves. From being the go-to guy for sweep-picking, and…

  • Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings

    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

Fretprints: Stevie Ray Vaughan

The Blues Man’s Jazzy Side

March 4, 2022 · Wolf Marshall

Stevie Ray Vaughan is the uncontested blues champion of the new age. Though he’s been gone more than 30 years,…

Dale Watson

Dale Watson

Honky-Tonk Hammerin’

July 5, 2016 · Michael Dregni

Dale Watson remembers well a conversation he once had with Leo Fender. “Leo gave me a guitar, and it was…

Mick Abrahams

This Was (And Still Is…)

November 30, 2016 · Willie G. Moseley

British guitarist Mick Abrahams is best remembered for his work on Jethro Tull’s first album, This Was, followed by a…

Edgar Winter

Tribute to “Brother Johnny”

January 4, 2023 · Dan Forte

Edgar Winter describes making Brother Johnny in tribute to his late brother, blues-rock guitar icon Johnny Winter, as “one of…


CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

The RFT 12AX7

The Righteous Flame-throwin’ Tube

July 1, 2020 · Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate

“…there is a time and place for that out-front spank, but if your mood shifts to slightly more mellow, there…

Ampeg Gemini II G-15

Ampeg Gemini II G-15

April 5, 2016 · Dave Hunter

Preamp tubes: three 12AX7, one 6CG7, one 7199. Output tubes: two 7868. Rectifier: solidstate Controls: volume, treble and bass on…

VG Q&A: Jimi Flip

Plus, Precision Bass rests and an odd Galliano

October 12, 2023 · Peter Stuart Kohman

I’ve never read why Jimi Hendrix played and set up a right-hand Strat to play left-handed. Surely, he could’ve found…

Rickenbacker 375F

Seven Siblings

October 4, 2017 · Peter Stuart Kohman

Every guitar company has had its odd ducks, its failures, its forgotten models. While some are consigned to the scrapheap…


NEWSWIRE

APPROVED GEAR

GJ2 Arete 5-Star Featured Image

GJ2 Arete 5-Star

Monster of Rock

June 5, 2015 · Pete Prown

Bergen Guitars ST and TL Price: $3,999 Info: www.gj2guitars.com. Grover Jackson is a name forever associated with classic metal and…

Home Feature Image

Echopark Clarence

Wayback Machine

June 10, 2016 · Oscar Jordan

Gabriel Currie’s Echopark Guitars have been played around the world by some of the music industry’s heaviest hitters. His is…

Mesa/Boogie Mark Five: 25

Mesa/Boogie Mark Five: 25

Stage, Studio, Etc.

March 30, 2016 · Julian Burtell

Mesa/Boogie Mark Five: 25 Price: $1,299 (list) Contact: www.mesaboogie.com Housed in teensy cabinets, so-called “lunchbox” amps are all the rage,…

Home Feature Image

Mu-FX Octave Divider

The Mu Is Back

June 10, 2016 · Michael Dregni

This is rocket science. Or at least as close as a stompbox gets. Sure, building a pedal that tweaks a…

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Peter Rowan

Carter Stanley’s Eyes

July 5, 2018 · Rich Kienzle

Peter Rowan spent 1963 through ’67 as lead singer/guitarist with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys before his own…

Album of the Year

February 8, 2017 · Vintage Guitar

From 2012 to the present — read about each Readers' Choice Awards Albums.

Joe Robinson

Eyes on the Prize

October 4, 2023 · Bob Dragich

Bouncing on a trampoline in the yard of the home his father built outside Temagog, Australia, nine-year-old Joe Robinson gleefully…

Eric Lindberg

December 8, 2025 · Rich Kienzle

“I’m always trying to do things I haven’t done before,” says guitarist/banjoist Eric Lindberg, who has toured and recorded for…

The Story of Albanus Guitars

Windy-City Wonders

March 7, 2019 · James W. Leckinger

“Art for art’s sake.” The expression is common. But how often is it practiced? In a basement studio on Chicago’s…

Muireann Bradley

Eire Apparent

September 9, 2024 · Pete Prown

The term “old soul” is overused, yet Muireann Bradley effortlessly lives up to it. Just 17 years old, her debut…

Earl Slick

Martian Connection – and More

April 1, 2022 · Willie G. Moseley

Brooklyn-born guitarist Earl Slick is best-known for his work with David Bowie, which spanned several decades. His recent participation with…

Brown Guitar Factory Chambered Electric

Beast Mode

April 23, 2019 · Michael Dregni

To use a slightly skewed metaphor, John Brown builds guitars to the beat of a different drummer. After all, who…

Louis Electric Buster

Beyond Deluxe

March 6, 2015 · Zac Childs

Louis Electric Buster Price: $1,595 (street) Contact: louisamps.com. Lou Rosano has been building amps in the Fender vein for more…

Damon Fowler Brings the Blues

June 2, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

Slow and Tasty on “Taxman” Damon Fowler has shared stages with Dickey Betts and Butch Trucks, so it makes sense…

The Howlin’ Brothers

August 18, 2014 · Michael Dregni

Like a long-lost radio show from the ’50s suddenly coming to life on your radio in the late nighttime hours,…

Chris Tapp

Heavy Adversity

August 10, 2022 · Oscar Jordan

Unphased by knee-jerk comparisons to rock duos like the White Stripes, Royal Blood, and Black Keys, The Cold Stares have…

Walter Trout

Walter Trout

Battling Back

August 24, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

In his decades of playing, Walter Trout has served as lead guitarist for John Mayall and Canned Heat, and forged…

Magnatone Twilighter

Magnatone Twilighter

King of Vibrato

January 9, 2014 · Michael Dregni

Magnatone Twilighter Price: $2,249 (12″ combo, list) Info: www.magnatoneusa.com. Magnatone is dead, long live Magnatone! The original Magnatone amp company…

Jake E. Lee

The Legend Returns

May 29, 2015 · Oscar Jordan

Jake E. Lee found fame replacing Randy Rhoads to co-write two of Ozzy Osborne’s most popular albums – Bark At…

Spoon

Lucifer On The Sofa

November 17, 2022 · Michael Dregni

Ten studio albums in, Spoon’s latest just may be its purest rock-and-roll record. What took so long? The band’s early…

API Audio TranZformer GT and LX

Stripped Down

July 10, 2019 · Phil Feser

Automated Processing Inc. (API) is best-known for its high-end mixing consoles for broadcast and recording, along with the mic preamps,…

Metallica

72 Seasons

March 16, 2024 · Oscar Jordan

Metallica’s 11th album is a blast from the band’s hard-charging past, and does not disappoint. As the follow-up to 2016’s…

Whitey Kirst

Life After Iggy

September 20, 2019 · Johnny Zapp

Whitey Kirst is known for smoldering lead-guitar tone and collaborating with punk-rock pioneer Iggy Pop. After four albums and hundreds…

Earth, Wind & Fire’s “That’s the Way of the World”

Guitars, Groove, and Mysticism

September 1, 2022 · Oscar Jordan

Earth, Wind & Fire played “world music” before the phrase was coined. By 1974, bandleader Maurice White’s ensemble of talented…

Taylor AD17e

Tube SaviorDream Machine

November 8, 2022 · Pete Prown

Taylor’s AD (American Dream) line aims to put affordable U.S.-made acoustics in the hands of most any player. The new…

Gibson’s Earliest Dreadnought

Gibson’s Earliest Dreadnought?

February 18, 2016 · George Gruhn and Walter Carter

Gibson was a late entry into the flat-top guitar market, offering its first model in 1926, but Gibson was a…

The PRS HX 50 and HX 2×12 Cabinet

Jimi Jam

July 11, 2022 · Tom Guerra

Paul Reed Smith has earned a reputation building guitars of the highest quality. It wasn’t until just over a decade…

Arlington Guitar Show 2014

October 24, 2014 · Lisa Sharken

[caption id="attachment_19064" align="alignleft" width="300"] '50s Fender Deluxe amp at Wildwood Music of Texas[/caption] [caption id="attachment_19065" align="alignleft" width="225"] '53 Harmony Stratotone…

Richie Kotzen

Nomad

August 13, 2025 · Pete Prown

More than 30 years into a wildly eclectic career (hey, the guy played with Poison and bass god Stanley Clarke),…

Reflecting on Steve Cropper: A Playlist

December 4, 2025 · Vintage Guitar

Steve Cropper was just 20 years old when his band, the Mar-Keys, began backing singers in the studios of Stax…

Coral Electric Sitar

Coral Electric Sitar

April 6, 2016 · George Gruhn

For centuries, Indian musicians have utilized the resonant sympathetic strings of the sitar to create the unique sounds of classical Indian…

Tomas Janzon

From Stockholm With Love

January 4, 2024 · Oscar Jordan

On Tomas Janzon’s Nomadic, the Stockholm transplant based in New York channels his inner Wes Montgomery to unveil fresh compositions…

Have Guitar Will Travel 073 – Crimson Apple’s Shelby Benson and OTTTO

April 13, 2022 · James Patrick Regan

Episode 73 of “Have Guitar Will Travel” is a two-fer starting with guitarist Shelby Benson from the dark-pop band Crimson…