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Austin legend Jon Dee Graham plays “This Old Guitar”

Jon Dee Graham’s parts Strat has been his stage and studio mainstay for more than four decades. Assembled by Mark Younger-Smith with a ’64 neck, ’63 pickups, and a Custom Shop reissue body finished in Shoreline Gold that lends testimony to the years and miles. Here, he plays it through a 30-watt Carr, jamming on the lick and lead from “This Old Guitar,” a track from his latest album, “Only Dead For A Little While.” Catch our review in the April issue. Read Now!


Premiere of Seth Lee Jones’ new 110 video!

Filmed at one of our favorite local dive bars, Tin Dog, this is “110.” I played my main guitar, a battle scarred Tele style I built from scratch in 2006. It’s a one piece ash body, one piece birdseye maple neck with single carbon fiber neck reinforcement. The neck is non adjustable and has no radius, it’s dead flat like a classical. The bender unit is a modified Hipshot palm lever unit. It’s loaded with mcnelly pickups, stagger swagger neck and dual blade bridge. It’s tuned open D with a String Joy custom set .017,.017., .026, .032, 0 42., .053 nickel. Keep up with Seth on Instagram!


Austin legend Jon Dee Graham plays “This Old Guitar”

Jon Dee Graham’s parts Strat has been his stage and studio mainstay for more than four decades. Assembled by Mark Younger-Smith with a ’64 neck, ’63 pickups, and a Custom Shop reissue body finished in Shoreline Gold that lends testimony to the years and miles. Here, he plays it through a 30-watt Carr, jamming on the lick and lead from “This Old Guitar,” a track from his latest album, “Only Dead For A Little While.” Catch our review in the April issue. Read Now!


Premiere of Seth Lee Jones’ new 110 video!

Filmed at one of our favorite local dive bars, Tin Dog, this is “110.” I played my main guitar, a battle scarred Tele style I built from scratch in 2006. It’s a one piece ash body, one piece birdseye maple neck with single carbon fiber neck reinforcement. The neck is non adjustable and has no radius, it’s dead flat like a classical. The bender unit is a modified Hipshot palm lever unit. It’s loaded with mcnelly pickups, stagger swagger neck and dual blade bridge. It’s tuned open D with a String Joy custom set .017,.017., .026, .032, 0 42., .053 nickel. Keep up with Seth on Instagram!


Dominic Miller

Team Player, Solo Turn

A longtime member of Sting’s band, Dominic Miller is the quintessential team player, even on his own solo albums. His latest release is Vagabond, a melding of jazz, world music, and pop produced by studio icon Manfred Eicher. The enchanting music is led by Miller’s acoustic guitar, yet he never overplays. Rather, he lets other […]

Forty Quid of Klunk

Tales of the Harmony Bass

Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh, Klunk! It’s not the most artful musical introduction, but it was effective. And by the time a screaming Hammond organ slides in over the pounding bass-and-drums, most listeners are hooked. The song is “Gimme Some Lovin” by the Spencer Davis Group, and the 1966 record is a showcase not only for the vocals and […]

Ian Hunter

Defying the Odds

Taking advantage of the time off in the early days of the pandemic, Ian Hunter hunkered down in his Connecticut home studio to craft a few dozen new tunes. Initially unable to develop the songs beyond demo status, Hunter’s friends and admirers around the globe joined the cause from their home studios, contributing to an […]

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter

License To Thrill

To a generation of music fans, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter was one of the most recognizable guitarists of the early ’70s. On TV shows like “Midnight Special” and “American Bandstand,” he was the Telecaster-wielding rocker who played on Steely Dan’s first three albums; his solos on “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Night By Night,” “Bodhisattva,” and […]

Various Artists

Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan and Dominic Miller

Bill Frisell is a living jazz icon, famed for his ethereal tone and snaking post-bop lines. Here, he partners with Thomas Morgan for a live set – just guitar and standup bass – cut at the Village Vanguard in New York. It’s intimate and beautiful, as you’d expect from ECM. “It Should Have Happened A […]

A Little More Better

CopperSound’s Foxcatcher Boost/Overdrive and Polaris Chorus/Vibrato

Offering hand-built pedals from their shop in Easton, Massachusetts, CopperSound seems to be finding a niche among small-batch builders, namely by rethinking some well-loved tones and technologies. One recent offering is the Foxcatcher. True to its Swiss-Army-knife livery, it combines utility and versatility. Its soft-clipping overdrive circuit is based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker and can […]

Larry Collins 1944-2024

Larry Collins, a guitar prodigy mentored by renowned flatpicker Joe Maphis, and half of the ’50s brother/sister act The Collins Kids, died January 5 in Santa Clarita, California. He was 79 and passed from natural causes. Growing up on a dairy farm near Tulsa, Larry (born October 4, 1944) and his sister, Lorrie, were raised […]

Pasquale Grasso

One-Man Duo

In the 1940s, jazz pianist Art Tatum wowed audiences with a virtuoso technique that sounded like two players. Today, Pasquale Grasso is similarly approaching the archtop six-string, harmonizing runs and melodies in a way that sounds like a guitar duo, not just one man. Raised in Italy and based in New York City, Grasso earned […]

Charles Moothart

Fuzz: Sons of Sabbath

While ’80s metal is past its heyday, the proto-metal of the late 1960s and early ’70s is making a huge comeback, thanks to younger bands re-imagining the saturated sounds of bands like The Stooges and Blue Cheer. Guitarist Charles Moothart and his band, Fuzz, are at the forefront. Their latest album, Fuzz III, marinates in […]

Shane Speal

King of the CBG

In an era of high-tech musical toys, there’s some irony in the fact that the cigar-box guitar – most primitive of homemade stringed instruments – is alive and well.  The first examples appeared in rural America, created and built by musicians too poor to have a “store-bought.” Today, Shane Speal is the self-appointed “King of […]

2023 May Issue on Spotify

This month we feature Chris Duarte, Nickel Creek, Pink Floyd, J. Geils Band, Harvey Mandel, L.A. Guns, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Paul Gilbert, and more! Spotify is free, or available without ads via paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,”or if you already have an account Listen to the complete […]

Jeff Senn and Crazy Aces

Dealing Out Twang

When you build guitars for a living, you might unwind with another hobby – say, beer-can collecting or crochet. Not Jeff Senn, mastermind behind Original Senn Guitars. He started a band. Call it R&D or just plain fun, but Senn’s band, Crazy Aces, is a funky, kitschy ensemble that plays an amalgam of hard-driving surf, […]

Band of Heathens’ Gordy and Ed: Low-Key and Tasty!

 Austin heroes play vintage-laden twofer Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi use a few of their favorite things to play “Heartless Year” and “Don’t Let the Darkness,” from the new Band of Heathens album, “Simple Things.” As they prove, with great instruments, come great stories – and great music. Gordy is running his real-deal ’52 […]

Gibson SG Les Paul

Classic shape that filled big shoes... for awhile

In 1961, Gibson replaced its Les Paul series with a new line of lightweight, ultrathin, all mahogany, double-cutaway solidbodies the SG (for solid guitar). Developed under the aegis of Ted McCarty and introduced as the “new Les Paul,” the SG heralded new directions and a new marketing emphasis for Gibson; trends exemplified only two years […]

Robin Basses

Robin Basses

A Photo Retrospective

Alamo Music Products holds a unique place in the history of electric guitars and basses. The Houston-based company began its journey in the early ’80s as Robin Guitars, importing retro-influenced instruments from Japan. By the end of the decade, it began U.S. production of instruments and soon after changed its name as it began making […]

Vic Johnson

At Your Service

Music fans might remember Vic Johnson as the wickedly eclectic guitarist from the ’80s band The Busboys; it thrived in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV, appeared in the Eddie Murphy blockbuster 48 Hrs., and enjoyed a hit album with Minimum Wage Rock & Roll. In the years since, Johnson made his mark […]

Tyler Morris Features a Martin Style 2 1/2-17

Tyler Morris Playing a Martin Style 2 1/2-17 Tyler Morris grabbed his 19th-century Martin Style 2 1/2-17 to play a medley of 20th-century licks. He also digs into the history of the instrument and notes its similarities to his modern Martin. Keep up with Tyler HERE!

Walter Trout

“Reborn” and Rockin’

After having his life saved by a liver transplant and releasing Battle Scars, an album that chronicled his health struggles, Walter Trout is back. To celebrate, he gathered friends including Joe Bonamassa, Warren Haynes, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd to record We’re All in This Together. How did the guest list develop for the album? Battle […]

Brown Guitar Factory Chambered Electric

Beast Mode

To use a slightly skewed metaphor, John Brown builds guitars to the beat of a different drummer. After all, who wants a custom builder without vision, churning out yet another version of a Strat or Les Paul? Brown heads Brown’s Guitar Factory in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul. He’s a third-generation instrument builder and repairer, and his […]

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