Classic Instruments

Gibson records say the Les Paul Junior was introduced in 1954. But this instrument has tone and volume pot codes from ’53. It also differs in regard to other specifications, most notably that its neck joint is unlike that on any other Junior.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB1YVc1j8ac&w=560&h=315] This is a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online features where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and...

Dan Smith had an idea – a solidbody guitar with routed chambers that would provide unique resonant tonal characteristics. And he knew the shape...

From the first JTM to models for Clapton and Townshend, Jim Marshall has been building amps since the early 1960s. Though inspired by others, his amps are entities unto themselves. Marshall amplifiers have remained the choice of artists who wanted their sound to be as impressive as their look.

Martin’s pre-WWII dreadnought guitars set the standard for the modern flat-top, and thus both have been inducted into the VG Hall of Fame.

Free love, slick guitars, hot cars! Few pieces of late-’60s pop culture were anywhere near as hip and groovy as this marketing stroke of genius.

John Dopyera left National in 1929 to begin work on a secret project - a single-cone resonator guitar he believed superior to the Triolian. His instrument became synonymous with resonator guitars.

Taken in trade by a music store in Florida, it was sold to a local recording studio in 1977. Shortly afterward, its new owner started to wonder if maybe it wasn’t much more than just another Les Paul.

Pure Höfner showpiece in concept and execution, only 12 were made. And for as pedestrian as it may be in terms of materials, its design was a radical departure. Today its sole purpose is to entice aficionados and collectors!

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and...