• Classics: Norman Harris

    Classic Instruments

    Classics: Norman Harris

    Rare Pioneer

    As a teenager who just wanted to play music, Norm Harris lived with the reality that he and his band weren’t going to be millionaires anytime soon. So he did what musicians do – side-hustled. But when most were manning the counter at a music shop or serving tables, Harris was up at the crack

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  • Yamaha SA-15

    Yamaha SA-15

    Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies, then startling innovations. Perspective encircles the truth. So, how should we perceive the Yamaha SA-15? Japan became interested in guitars in the early 1920s, as some musicians there began to perform what we’d today call…

  • Greg Koch: Gristly “Blues”

    Greg Koch: Gristly “Blues”

    Greg Koch: Gristly “Blues” Greg Koch fearlessly wrings the sort of vibrato that only a Tele will tolerate from his ’53 to play this exclusive version of Freddie King’s “The Stumble” flavored with a bit of delay and running into his Tone King Royalist. Inspired by fan requests, it’s just one of the tracks culled…

Wolf Marshall

Jazz-Lore Generator

January 3, 2025 · Ward Meeker

Wolf Marshall was absorbing music before he could walk or talk. Born to a mother who was a concert pianist,…

J.D. Simo

Playing for Elvis

July 13, 2023 · Oscar Jordan

Psych-blues guitar maestro J.D. Simo was the wizard behind the guitar work heard on Elvis, the new Baz Luhrmann film…

The Fender Master Series

April 16, 2018 · Gary Koehler

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

Dallas Rangemaster

The Dallas Rangemaster

January 26, 2015 · Michael Dregni

Eric Clapton christened it “woman tone.” On the famed 1966 “Beano” album, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton, the…


“Boogie Mod” Dual Showman

What do you do when the humble blackface Bandmaster you acquired sight-unseen turns out to harbor one of rock’s hottest lead circuits? Celebrate! And then go tracing its connection to…

The Gibson ES-5

Instrument Profile

Gibson, like all American guitarmakers, had to shut down electric guitar production for three years during World War II. But when production resumed in 1946, Gibson made up for the…

Park 45

Masked Marshall

When is a Marshall not a Marshall? When it’s a Park, of course! Though it might not scream “classic rock tone” for the guitarist masses, in the eyes and ears…

Phil Manzanera’s “Magdalena”

Roxy Music legend solo instrumental Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera used his beloved ’64 Gibson Firebird VII to create this exclusive run through “Magdalena,” one of five new tunes on…

Gibson’s 1966-’70 Flying V

In Detail

Body is two-piece mahogany. Pickguard mounts to body with 13 screws. Pickups are patent-number humbuckers with chrome-plated covers. Tune-O-Matic bridge with Gibson’s basic spring vibrato (a.k.a. Vibrola) tailpiece. Control pots…

  • Hilary Gardner returns with a fresh take on a holiday classic!

    Hilary Gardner returns with a fresh take on a holiday classic!

    Hilary Gardner returns! Ready to set the tone for your holidays, Hilary Gardner and her band return for a fantastic take on the classic Elvis hit “Blue Christmas” (written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson) just for VG followers! Accompanied again by Justin Poindexter and Sasha Papernik, this time they’re joined by Jen Hodge on…

  • The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150!

    The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150!

    The Immortal Danelectro Guitarlin

    Having looked at the most expensive electric guitars offered in 1960s – over 50 years ago. Traditional makers – Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch – concentrated on flashy amplified archtops that retailed up into the $700 to $800 range – beautiful instruments, but not representative of where the electric guitar was going. More forward-looking makers offered…

Star Stomps

Famous Sounds Abound in New Book

December 9, 2021 · Michael Dregni

Stompboxes inspire their own special mania. While the allure of guitars is obvious with their colorful, curvaceous looks, effects are…

Philip Sayce – Strat monster!

March 12, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Post-SRV blues-rock wizard Godmonster beast on his (two) ’63 Fender Strats, Philip Sayce plays the one he calls Mother running…

BASSMAN-HOME-MAIN-THUMB

1964 Fender Bassman

February 17, 2016 · Dave Hunter

1964 Fender 6G6-B Bassman Preamp tubes: four 7025 (12AX7 types) Output tubes: two 5881 (a more-rugged 6L6 type), fixed-bias Rectifier:…

The Real Story of Martin’s 14-Fret Orchestra Models

OM Irony

July 9, 2019 · George Gruhn

Martin Orchestra Model (OM) guitars made prior to World War II are some of the finest ever made for fingerpicking.…


Revisiting The Jazzmaster

While volumes have been written about its more-famous sibling, the Stratocaster, surprisingly little attention is paid to the Jazzmaster – Fender’s top-of-the-line guitar when it was introduced in 1958. Then,…

GIBSON F-7 1934

1934 Gibson F-7

Prior to Gibson’s innovations, mandolins were bowl-back instruments with a lute-like back usually constructed with rosewood or maple back ribs and a bent spruce top with an oval sound hole.…

GRETSCHRANCHER-HOME-MAIN-BIG

Gretsch Rancher

“A spectacular model in real he-man outdoor Western finish with powerful appeal for Hill-billy and Cowboy bands.” This is how Gretsch first introduced the Rancher Jumbo – offspring of the 1940s…

The D’Angelico Excel Mandolin

The 1,164 archtop guitars made by John D’Angelico have brought him great renown as the finest individual archtop guitar builder in the history of the instrument. His mandolins, however, are…

Burke Guitar

Axe That Time Forgot

For more than 70 years, aluminum has been a component in guitar construction. Exactly whose idea it was originally has never been a cut-and-dried matter of fact, but it has…

Weymann Model 848

Mail-Order Rara Avis

From 1864 through the 1940s, H.A. Weymann and Son, Inc. made, imported, and sold marching band, orchestral, percussion, and other instruments through its own mail-order catalog. Heinrich “Henry” Arnold Weymann…

  • McKinley James’ Blues

    McKinley James’ Blues

     Family Barn Jam! With his ’82 Gibson 335 running into a Headstrong Corduroy (20-watt/6V6) amp, McKinley James shares a taste of his new album, “Working Class Blues,” with this run at “Call Me Lonesome.” In the October issue, he tells us how the album was made in the family barn with the only backing…

  • Jim Campilongo & Steve Cardenas

    Jim Campilongo & Steve Cardenas

    Mutual Musical Idiosyncrasies

    Steve Cardenas and Jim Campilongo have been playing guitar together for a long time, though the constellations only recently aligned so they could record. Captured on three nights in September of 2022, New Year showcases harmonic personalities merging through atmosphere, reverb, and ancient acoustic guitars. It’s also a meditation on the beauty and strength of…

Freddie King’s ’73 ES-355

Thinline Crown

June 11, 2024 · Ward Meeker

Influenced by Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others including jump-blues…

Vintage Instrument Research

An Ever-Changing Landscape

May 9, 2019 · George Gruhn

Fretted instruments can be examined in much the same way as zoological taxonomist or forensic pathologist would approach them. They…

Albert King’s THC Flying V

Coterie Complete

January 2, 2026 · Willie G. Moseley

Robert Johnson has been a fixture in the vintage-guitar community for more than a half-century. As a player and music…

Epiphone 1968 Les Paul Prototype

Fraternal Twin

May 9, 2023 · Willie G. Moseley

Ted McCarty’s leadership at Gibson was highlighted by the introduction of top-shelf instruments created by knowledgable, intuitive designers and builders.…