-
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,…
-
“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…
-
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. …

Rich Robinson and Marc Ford Of The Magpie Salute
Wiser Time
Musical chemistry is a special, sometimes flammable rapport between two musicians. It’s a rare thing – highly sought, difficult to…

Interstellar Audio Machines Octonaut Hyperdrive
Next-Level Drive
Interstellar Audio Machines advertised its original Octonaut Hyperdrive as, “The only overdrive you’ll ever need.” Well… The new version offers…

Magic Magnets
TV Jones’ Starwood Humbuckers
Best known for making the vintage-sounding Magna’Tron, Power’Tron, and Supra’Tron pickups, TV Jones has expanded its well-regarded line to include…

Alday B-Blender
One For The Masses
Taylor 814ce Price: $129.95 (list) Info: www.b-blender.com Why aren’t we guitarists ever happy to have our guitars sound like guitars?…

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123
Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123 is made of 1/8″ aluminum with overlapping surfaces that can be adjusted from 13″ to…

G&L Fallout
Form Follows Function
G&L Fallout Price: $1,400 (retail) Info: www.glguitars.com. From automobiles to kitchen appliances to, of course, electric guitars, designers have gotten…
-
VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS

Remembering Ronnie
Phillips Finishes Guitarist’s Final Recordings
Ricky Phillips has many fond memories of his friendship and musical association with Ronnie Montrose (1947-2012). The bassist is finishing…

Philip Sayce’s Guitar Meditation
Exploring, Expanding Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into…

Tom Principato
Potomac Picker
A fixture in the Washington, D.C. area for more than two decades, twangmeister Tom Principato and his band crank out…

Larry McCray
All In the Family
“A lot of people…think [blues is] all the same. So I try to take that element out. I don’t want…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Vega De Luxe Electric Plectrum Banjo
Billed as “the latest orchestral sensation… unparalleled for versatility,” Vega’s electric banjos – developed to compete with one being made…

Nils Lofgren Shines Solo – Again
Star Grabs Vintage J-50 for “Ain’t the Truth Enough? An in-demand sideman for more than 50 years, guitar wizard Nils…

Raul Malo’s Instrumental Side
Mavericks frontman with a vintage Jazzmaster Though he is renowned and beloved for his vocals in the Mavericks, Raul…

Fender’s 5E7 Bandmaster
There’s something about the 3×10 Bandmaster that drives vintage-Fender nuts gaga. Introduced in 1953, it underwent substantial design changes in…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
-
Live Wire
-
Narrow(field) Win
-
Take Flight

Yamaha THR10
Practice Perfection?
Yamaha THR10 Price: $299 Contact: usa.yamaha.com. As a rule of thumb, practice amps are a compromise. Blissfully portable, they typically…

Fender Joe Strummer Campfire
Punk Burner
Punk legend Joe Strummer might not be the first name that comes to mind when the subject turns to “acoustic…

Altamira TD Birdseye Oval Hole
Djangology
Altamira Guitars has made a specialty of classical nylon-string, replica, and gypsy-jazz guitars. The latter are created with the same…

Quilter Labs’ Aviator Cub
High Flyer
Quilter Labs has gained a rep for busting popular perceptions. They’ve attempted to step up their game with this single-channel…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
-
Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
-
Remembering a Heavy Hero

VG Q&A: Parlor Mystery
Plus, a Pro’s List of Repair Glues
My neighbor has an old parlor guitar that he asked me to clean up after years in storage. Inside the…

Fretprints: Metallica’s Master of Puppets
Genre Giant
In 1984, Kerrang magazine coined the buzzword “thrash,” signaling the arrival of an unprecedented heaviness in rock music – not…

Lyle Workman
Orchestral Maneuvers
You might not recognize his name, but in the last 30 years, Lyle Workman and his guitars have backed Sting,…

Pop ’N Hiss: Robin Trower’s Twice Removed from Yesterday
Think Again
The solo career of guitar icon Robin Trower took off like a rocket in the early ’70s after he left…








































