Retroman proprietor Joe Wolf is a dedicated one-man-shop that designs, builds, and finishes effects pedals all by hisself. Wolf, a guitarist and electronics engineer, began building pedals for his own use, and some for friends. Not long after, and with the encouragement of his wife, Amy, he started Retroman in 2002. As the name implies, [...]
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HomeBrew Electronics Power Screamer/Compressor Retro
Bit of This, Bit of That...
Seldom will you find a company more appropriately dubbed than HomeBrew Electronics. Joel Weaver, his wife, Andea, and their sole employee, Terri Landreth, build some of the most widely used boutique stompboxes in the industry, employed by heavy hitters like Steve Lukather, Carlos Santana, Rick Nielsen, and Richie Sambora. And much like its name, HomeBrew’s [...]
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Taylor T5 Thinline Fiveway
Six-Song Minimum?
Taylor T5 Thinline Fiveway For years, people continually asked Bob Taylor, “When are you going to come up with an electric guitar?” Taylor’s answer was always, “Somewhere between never and when we come up with a guitar that’s actually unique.” That “somewhere” arrived in 2005, with the birth to the Taylor T5 Thinline Fiveway. One’s [...]
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June 2010
This month in VG We speak with world-famous guitar builder Paul Reed Smith. Influenced by music early in life, instead of writing “Born To Run” or playing the lead on Tom Petty’s “Refugee,” guitar history will recall him as the Ted McCarty (or Leo Fender) of his generation. Then, Dave Hunter tells us [...]
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Gibson Trini Lopez
Photo: Billy Mitchell. Instrument courtesy of Shane’s. In the early 1960s, as Les Paul was leaving Gibson’s artist roster, the company recruited three of the most respected jazz guitarists to put their signatures on new “artist” model electrics. With Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, and Barney Kessel (plus the Everly Brothers in the acoustic line and [...]
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Weissenborn Style#4
Photo by Walter Carter, courtesy Gruhn Guitars. The acoustic Hawaiian/ guitar of Hermann Weissenborn is one of the most specialized instrument designs of the 20th century. Weissenborns were made for guitarists who played the newest craze of the late 1910s and 1920s – Hawaiian music – and with their koa-wood construction and square, fully hollow [...]
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1934 Martin D-28
12-Fret D-28
1934 Martin D-28 photo courtesy Daniel Salvo. The Martin D-28 was first issued in 1931. And all dreadnought Martins made from 1931 through ’33 featured a 12-fret (a reference to the point at which the neck meets the body) slotted-head neck and extended-length body, rather than the more familiar squared upper bout and shorter body [...]
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Guild Aristocrat M-75
Photo by Kelsey Vaughn Guild didn’t introduce a true solidbody electric guitar until 1963, but the Aristocrat of 1954 gave the appearance that Guild was competing head-to-head with Gibson’s new Les Paul Model. However, with its hollowbody and spruce top, the Aristocrat was more than just an interesting variation – it was quite a different [...]
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Garcia Amplification 60-watt combo
Ninety Pounds of Force and Finesse
Garcia Amplification’s 60-watt combo Matthew Garcia has been a guitarist for 27 years, many of them spent on the road six nights each week, 50 weeks each year. During his time in the trenches, Garcia started that search all too familiar to veteran players like him – he wanted his amplifier to reproduce the tone [...]
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Gibson Style O
Gibson Style O Artist The priority Gibson put on mandolins in its early years was reflected in the company’s original name – Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd. And the fact Gibson strung its guitars with steel strings suggests it may have viewed them as an extension of the mandolin family rather than as an instrument [...]
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