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Classic Instruments
The Electra Endorser
Flame-top guitars were fairly common during the 1970s “copy era,” but few reached the levels of figure we often see on modern high-end guitars. Then came the Electra Endorser X935CS, which set new standards for psychedelic woodgrain. “But it’s not a ’70s guitar,” you object. No, but arguably, the Endorser CS – which was only…
Veleno Guitars
Shiny Metal (Rare) Birds
Throughout the years luthiers have built guitars out of a lot of exotic materials, from Torres’ paper mache acoustics to Danelectro’s masonite to Dan Armstrong’s lucite guitars to Steinberger’s all-graphite…
Classics: September 2023
Bill Fudge’s Micro-Frets Huntington
Several years before he became a luthier who deserves much greater recognition, Ralph Jones sold new Fender guitars and amps out of his home studio in Rockville, Maryland. One early…
National Bel-Air
The idea of Gibson providing guitar parts to another prominent guitar maker is laughable today, but in the 1940s and ’50s, relationships were cozier between some of the major instrument…
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Webb Wilder’s take on “Beautiful Delilah”
“Hillbilly Speedball” sample Since the mid ’80s, Webb Wilder has cranked out consistently fine roots-rock. His latest is “Hillbilly Speedball,” and here he grabs his ’61 Gibson ES-330TD plugged into a narrow-panel Fender Vibrolux to play a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah.” He’s joined by George Bradfute (on a ’50s Epiphone upright) and Bob…
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Jorge Garcia’s FM Anthems, in Jazz
Fresh takes on revered classics Joge Garcia’s “Still Crossing” is a collection of stellar instrumental performances of familiar tunes like “Kashmir,” “Little Wing,” and a classical spin through Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” Here, though, he shows us the title track, which is the only original tune. His ’87 Fender D’Aquisto is plugged into a…
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Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux, Part 2
Full House: Transcendent Jazz Masterpiece
In the November issue, we started to refurbish a doubleneck mandolin/guitar I made for Jerry Schafer in 1977. It needed a new wiring harness, tuners, binding repair, new frets, and a good setup. With teammates Ceil Thompson and Gene Imbody sharing the load, we continued the work. 1) Gene – our go-to guy for tough…
Trainwreck Express “Nancy”
World’s most desirable amplifier? Aside from any “standard” vintage amps that have been elevated through their associations with major artists, the few original-design, made-by-hand amps out there that wear the…
1949 Bigsby Tenor
By the advent of the solidbody electric guitar in the 1950s, tenor guitarists were a dying breed. Consequently, electric tenors are relatively rare, and a tenor guitar made by solidbody…
Audiovox Electronic Bass
Discovered! The World's First Electric Bass Guitar
While there have been lively debates raging in the rare instrument community for many years about any number of puzzling early guitars – not to mention the perennial issue of…
Songbirds: Museum with a Mission
Treasures in Tennessee
Ask anyone who geeks out on vintage guitars, from the well-heeled collector to the dreamer whose prized possession is a relic’d reissue, and you’ll hear the stories… First sighting of…
Dallas Shaftesbury 30
We mine the rich seam of obscure vintage American tube amps on a regular basis here in the pages of VG, but less often do we delve into the equally…
Bell 30 RV Stereo-Reverb Combo
Accordion to Plan
1961 Bell 30 RV Stereo-Reverb • Preamp tubes: three 6EU7, one 7199, one 12AU7, one 12AX7 • Output tubes: four 6BQ5 (a.k.a. EL84) • Rectifier: solidstate • Controls: Ch1: Volume,…
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The Guitars of Gary Rossington
A Legend’s Legacy
When the time came for Gary Rossington’s family to decide what to do with his guitars and amps after his passing in March of 2023, daughters Mary and Annie along with his wife, Dale, looked for advice from his lifelong friend and bandmate, Rickey Medlocke. The stash was considerable – 71 guitars including his famous…
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Wes Beech
Life in The Plasmatics
From the moment he met Rod Swenson and Wendy O. Williams, things for Wes Beech were never really “normal.” Walking into the basement of their loft for an audition, Beech didn’t know he was about to become part of a stage-storming, car-smashing, guitar-chainsawing artistic statement called the Plasmatics. The product of Swenson’s high-functioning mind (if…
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Classics: Mike Semrad’s ’57 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Mike Semrad’s musical roots run deep in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska – at least as far back as his great-grandmother, who sang at the city’s opera house. But his first glimpse into the true power of music happened in high school, when one night in 1962, overachieving pep-band director Bob Olson stirred things up…
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Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker
Basement Jams & Blown Speakers
1966 Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker Combo The days when a kid would break out the soldering iron and take on a serious electronics project just for fun are largely behind us. Back in the ’60s, though, that’s how many an aspiring musician acquired his own precious guitar amplifier, as was the case with this Heathkit TA-16…
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D.K. Harrell and His ’76 ES-335
B.B. King of the Blues Award winner plays “Liquor Stores and Legs” Winner of the B.B. King of the Blues Award, here D.K. Harrell and his ’76 Gibson ES-355, Christal, are going straight to his Lab Series L-5 for a stripped-down run through “Liquor Stores and Legs.” If you like uptown shuffles, relatable lyrics, and…
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Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”
Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from the typical blues player. A devotee of B.B. King (and others), he pays homage on a new album, “Iron City: Live in NYC,” by plugging two of his favorite guitars into the ’65 Guild Thunder…
1961 Fender Bassman
Blond Ambition
1961 Fender 6G6(A) Bassman • Preamp tubes: four 7025 (12AX7) • Output tubes: two 5881 (6L6GC) • Rectifier: GZ34 tube • Controls: Bass channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; Normal channel: Volume,…
Rosewood Dobro
In the 1930s, the original Dobro company went through a series of ownership changes and licensing agreements. It did not regularly publish catalogs, and its model numbers were typically also…
Robin Ranger
1993 Robin Ranger, serial number 931353. Photo: Bill Ingalls, Jr. Instrument courtesy of Charles Farley. The saga of Alamo Music Products is one of both “retro-innovation” and an against-the-trend manufacturing…
1968 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Silver Serenade
Amplifier collectors swarm to models with descriptors like “first year” and “golden age,” but other types can be far more interesting; a transitional model or amp from a short-lived evolutionary…
Small Screen, Big Pickin’
Crew Strives to Keep it Real on “Nashville”
It’s not often that prime-time network television captures an audience of working class, professional musicians. In 1968, players watched Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore swap their Gibson SJ-200 and a…
Dan Fogelberg’s Gretsch White Penguin
Dan Fogelberg’s success as a singer and songwriter far overshadows his reputation as a musician, but the man whose tenor voice and sentimental songs ruled the Adult Contemporary charts in…
Fender Original Electric Bass Guitar
Fender Myth Debunked! (Part I)
Perhaps this essay should have been titled “Audiovox vs. The Piltdown Man,” due to the doubts had by myself and a number of others regarding the authenticity of this month’s…
Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 3
Backbone Instruments 1962-’64
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled the first three installments for a special edition of VG…
Oliver Sound, Inc.
"Flex" beyond Ampeg
Introduction If you’ve read Gregg Hopkins and Bill Moore’s new book, Ampeg: The Story Behind The Sound, you know that Jess Oliver played a major role in the success of…
Boggs’ Quad
Four-neck Fender From a Friend
Noted in musical history as one of the players who pushed the steel guitar beyond Hawaiian music to more-complex chording and wild interchanges with Spanish-style electric guitarists, Noel Boggs emerged…
Building a Studio
The Art of Home Recording
VG will equip readers with the knowledge and skill to achieve professional-sounding home recordings. We guide you through the setup of a home studio – a starting point to this…
MXR Custom Shop GT-OD Overdrive
Snappy and Smooth
From its early days with the script-logo Distortion + to the modern Zack Wlyde overdrive, MXR has been a mainstay in the overdrive/distortion pedal market for the past 30-plus years.…
Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux, Part 2
Full House: Transcendent Jazz Masterpiece
In the November issue, we started to refurbish a doubleneck mandolin/guitar I made for Jerry Schafer in 1977. It needed a new wiring harness, tuners, binding repair, new frets, and…
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 – and unknowingly accelerated its own implosion. Still, some of the…
National N-275
Gibson is widely known for its guitars, mandolins, and banjos, but many are unaware the company built instruments for nearly 30 brands for several distributors and music store chains, primarily…
The Hagstrom EDP46 DeLuxe
World War II was responsible for an unbelievable amount of what we today know as the modern world, from computers to plastics. Even though there was a previous similarly named…
Recording Acoustic Guitars
The Art of Home Recording
Recording an acoustic guitar is very different from recording an electric, employing different microphones, placement, and technique. Here are a few essential steps.
Coppock Guitars
Vintage Rarities from the Pacific Northwest
The obscure Coppock brand of electric guitars first surfaced in 1994, with the publication of Electric Guitars & Basses: A Photographic History, by guitar historians George Gruhn and Walter Carter.…
Chris Butler’s Vox Mark VI: Waitress Server
Melding garage rock with glam, punk emerged in the early ’70s, set on stirring society’s pot. From New York to London, Dallas to Detroit, youthful contempt spurred the creation of…
Big Beat Boys
Musings on Fab and Gear, 50 Years Ago
Americans tend to link the beginnings of the Beatles phenomenon to a specific date – February 9, 1964, when the group first appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The truth,…
Ovation Solidbody Guitars
No matter how hard they tried
