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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…
Epiphone Tony Iommi SG Special
Monkey Time
Digging into the primordial ooze of heavy metal, players often start with Black Sabbath and their resident guitar necromancer, Tony…
Louie Shelton
Gold Coast Gigmeister
On August 16, 1966, the Beatle-esque guitar riff that opens “Last Train To Clarksville” crackled out of radios across America…
Easy Pickins
The Fine Art of Pick Collecting
You collect guitar picks? Is this a joke? Umm, no…and in a world where books are dedicated to the collectibility…
Tinsley Ellis’ “Devil May Care” attitude
Blues ace gets rowdy on his 345 through a tweed Champ The fiery Tinsley Ellis and his ’67 Gibson ES-345…
Heritage Guitars’ H-157W
Turnkey Head-Turner
In 1985, Heritage Guitars took over a certain factory space at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after the former…
Pigtail Music
Pigtail music makes ABR-style and wraparound bridges (in the U.S.) with vintage-style appearance and materials, but to tighter tolerances. Their…
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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
Richard Tozzoli: Underscore Overlord
Shark Week” Les Pauls, Flying V, et al Richard Tozzoli walks us through a guitar overdub session for Discovery Channel’s…
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…
Andy Gill
The Gang’s All Here
One of the most original-sounding guitarists to emerge from the post-punk/new wave movement of the late ’70s was Gang of…
Lonnie Brooks
1933-2017
Blues guitarist/singer Lonnie Brooks died April 1 in Chicago. He was 83. Born Lee Baker, Jr., he was one of…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Electra MPC
Standard X340
One of the more successful Japanese-made guitar brands of the 1970s was Electra, the brand name used for electric guitars…
Yamaha SA-15
Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies,…
Gibson’s Fabulous Florentines
Archtop Elite
The image of Elvis Presley on his 1968 NBC “comeback special” was, in a word, badass. Dressed in black leather…
Kustom’s The Bag
A New Dimension in Electro-Thoracity
When Steppenwolf’s John Kay took the stage, it was easy to believe he was performing a suitably ’60s ceremony celebrating…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Area 51 Fuzzwah
Two Great Tastes
Fuzz wahs are nothing new, of course. Released under scores of badge-engineered monikers, they’ve promised aural overload ranging from sirens…
Eastwood MRG Lap Steel
Slide Piece
Now more than 90 years old, the lap steel was the earliest example of an electric guitar and remains a…
Echopark Traditional American Acoustic
Small-Body Stunner
Echopark Guitars is the brainchild of Gabriel Currie, who opened the establishment in 2006, after many years of working as…
LsL Instruments’ Soledad
T-Bone with a Side of Sustain
Based out of Santa Clarita, California, LsL Instruments was founded by Lance and Lisa Lerman in 2008 after many years…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Robben Ford
Made To Last
When Robben Ford approaches traditional blues, he takes ownership, transporting it to new places. This latest five-song EP is no…
Austin Mics DIY Summer Reverb
for Kicks and More
Rick Wilkinson’s Austin Mics company, based in San Diego, specializes in do-it-yourself ribbon-microphone kits and DIY guitar pedals. His latest…
Robin Trower
Conquering Hero
As frustrating as the Covid pandemic has been for keeping artists off the road the past two-plus years, for many,…
Vox/Thomas Organ V-14 Super Beatle
Solid Sound
After producing some of the most-iconic guitar amplifiers of the early 1960s, Vox leaned unwittingly into a failing technology –…
