-
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…
Fender’s Player Plus Meteora HH
Familiar Face
Billed as “futuristic and familiar,” Fender’s Meteora design first arrived as part of the Parallel Universe line – mashups of…
Unsung: The Story of Marlo Henderson
The creation of great music is almost always a collaborative effort. From session players to engineers, producers, arrangers, and marketing…
Check This Action: Back Aboard
Despite (or because of) the huge Folk Boom of the late ’50s and early ’60s, these days “folk” is almost…
The G&L El Toro
At the beginning of 1983, Leo Fender was just more than three years into his last guitar-manufacturing venture when he…
McElroy OM Model
OM, Gee!
McElroy OM Model Price: $7,500 (base; $8,500 as reviewed) Info: www.mcelroyguitars.com. Brent McElroy is a Seattle luthier specializing in high-quality…
Fender Twin & Deluxe
Fender’s ’57 Twin Amp and ’57 Deluxe – Tweed for Two
Fender “tweed” guitar amplifiers – the Twin, Deluxe, Bassman, Champ, etc., from the 1950s – are the most sought after…
-
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,…
NOW AVAILABLE!
CURRENT ISSUE
Join 25,700+ subscribers & be notified when new articles & more becomes available!
ARTISTS
Dave Stryker
Fits To a T
The latest project from jazz guitarist Dave Stryker, Messin’ With Mister T, is a tribute to late saxophonist Stanley Turrentine,…
Dan Wilson’s celebration of jazz legends
Homage with Superb Musicality On his latest album, “Things Eternal,” jazz wizard Dan Wilson fuses post-bop, spirituality, and the songs…
Rod Abernethy
Fuzz: Carolina Acoustic Connections
A fixture on the North Carolina music scene, guitarist/songwriter Rod Abernethy has accumulated many memories, including the purchase of his…
Toy Caldwell
Marine and Marshall Tucker Guitarist Toy Caldwell
One of the earliest VG interviews Willie G. Moseley did with a veteran “Southern rock” musician was a conversation with…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
The Real Story of Martin’s 14-Fret Orchestra Models
OM Irony
Martin Orchestra Model (OM) guitars made prior to World War II are some of the finest ever made for fingerpicking.…
The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part Two
Last month, we began looking at some of the more entertaining fretted instrument advertising of the 20th century, in what…
Roy Smeck’s Gibson L-5
One For the “Wizard”
Player endorsements are part of the tradition of guitarmaking going back to its earliest use for public performance. LeRoy G.A.…
The Cost of Protection
100 Years of Instrument Cases
Modern guitars are typically sold with a hard case. But that wasn’t always so. Here, we look at the history…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
-
Live Wire
-
Narrow(field) Win
-
Take Flight
Dusky Electronics Toasted Overdrive
Let It Burn
Dusky Electronics’ new Toasted Overdrive is an upgrade of the company’s two-stage MOSFET amp in a box; builder Chris Rossi…
McGregor Cozmic Fuzzball
Sweet & Gnarly
The culmination of a quest to build the perfect transparent overdrive, Garth Heslop’s Cozmic Fuzzball is the third pedal in…
Vox MV50 AC
The Little Amp That Could
Ready to step onstage but your amp won’t sing? Traveling, but don’t want to lug a lot of gear? Need…
Sturdy and “Purdy”
Dashboards Pedalboards
Founded in 2010 by guitarist Ashley Dasher and based on his vision of the ideal touring pedalboard, Dashboards offers well-crafted,…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
-
More Personal
-
Rare Pioneer
Gibson’s Experimental Archtop
Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s. The Gibson company refined the design with the addition of f-holes…
Classics: December 2021
1967 Rickenbacker 360/12
Live-music fans who roamed South Florida from the early ’80s until the mid 2000s might recognize Craig Ball’s ’67 Rickenbacker…
The Fender “Korinacaster”
Double-Cut Kuriosity
There’s irony in the fact that Leo Fender, creator of the first solidbody electric guitar to be mass-produced, wasn’t the…
Jeff Beck
He Can’t Help It… He Just Keeps Getting Better
In 1985, speaking of the ’83 Action Research into Muscle Distrophy (A.R.M.S.) Tour that united Yardbirds alumni Jeff Beck, Jimmy…
