• The story of the Martin F-50

    Classic Instruments

    The story of the Martin F-50

    Our friend Nate Westgor from Willie’s American Guitars shares the story of Martin’s first step into the booming 1960s electric guitar market. Enjoy, and have a wonderful holiday season from all of us at Vintage Guitar!

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David Hidalgo Plays Joe Walsh’s ’59 Les Paul

 David Hidalgo Plays Joe Walsh’s ’59 Les Paul The video that helped convince Joe Walsh to reunite with his (now favorite!) ’59 Gibson Les Paul. Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo…

Mick Taylor’s ’58 Les Paul Standard

The Ya Ya’s Out!

Hard-edged face of the British Invasion, the Rolling Stones introduced the world to the implements, trappings, and accessories of rock-and-roll superstardom. With help from radio, television, and teen ’zines, the…

Mark Erlewine’s 40 Years with Willie Nelson’s Trigger

Wooden Wonder

For a decade, Willie Nelson chased fame as a performer in the Nashville mold of the ’60s – hair coifed, striding to center stage at the Grand Ole Opry in…

O’Hagan Guitars

Jaws Invades the Upper Mississippi

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, Minnehaha gives a little yelp of surprise. There, just behind Mary Tyler Moore, cutting the murky waters of Old Muddy with its triangular fin…

Watkins Joker

Beat-Gen Beaut

This could be just what every well-heeled young “Beat” guitarist and singer in Britain needed in the early 1960s – a guitar amp/PA with reverb, tremolo, mic stand, and tape…

Ricky Phillips’ Fender Custom Shop five-string

Ricky Phillips with his Fender Custom Shop bass in 2008. Photo: Willie G. Moseley. Most professional guitarists or bassists, upon reaching a certain level of success, are seen as “Les…

Pop ’N Hiss: Taste

Breakout Blues

The ’60s may have been the most musically significant decade in the history of popular music, but very few countries were represented then or in the years that followed. Fronted…

The Fender Tremolux

Most amp nuts are utterly fascinated by Fender’s rapid evolution from archaic to modern through the course of the 1950s. Within that arc, the transitional moments are often among the…

Hot Wires - A Brief History of the Modern Guitar String

Hot Wires

A Brief History of the Modern Guitar String

If you’ve ever bent a guitar string and given it a shake, send a silent thank you to guitarist James Burton. His solos on “Suzy Q” and “Hello, Mary Lou”…

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

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PRS Basses

Subjective Funk & Cool

The Paul Reed Smith bass was introduced at the January ’96 NAMM show. Set-neck and bolt-on (CE model) models were offered, with mahogany bodies and one-piece mahogany necks. On Bass…

Fender Bass VI

Rare Miss Proves Leo Was Ahead of His Time

Fender broke new musical ground in late 1951 with the introduction of the Precision Bass. This archetype of amplified music’s bottom-end set the stage for rock and roll, and transformed…

Epiphone 1968 Les Paul Prototype

Fraternal Twin

Ted McCarty’s leadership at Gibson was highlighted by the introduction of top-shelf instruments created by knowledgable, intuitive designers and builders. Another brilliant move was his guiding the purchase of foundering…

Ampeg VT-22

Ampeg VT-22

Preamp tubes: four 7025 (12AX7 types) Output tubes: two 5881 (a more-rugged 6L6 type), fixed-bias Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Bass Instrument channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; Normal channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; shared:…

The Supro 1600R Supreme and 600 Reverb

Toneful Twosome

Supro amps from the late 1950s and early ’60s are some of the most stylish of the era, and boast circuits that generated classic tones at the hands of a…

Star Stomps

Famous Sounds Abound in New Book

Stompboxes inspire their own special mania. While the allure of guitars is obvious with their colorful, curvaceous looks, effects are (usually) basic boxes covered in a toad’s load of warty…

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Audiovox and Serenader Amps

An Interview with Bud Tutmarc

Introduction With this month’s feature story on the Audiovox bass (page 80), plus a comparison between Audiovox pickup (page 81) and early Dobro pickups, it seems appropriate to also dedicate…

Fender Bass VI

Rare Miss Proves Leo Was Ahead of His Time

Fender broke new musical ground in late 1951 with the introduction of the Precision Bass. This archetype of amplified music’s bottom-end set the stage for rock and roll, and transformed…

The Fender Tremolux

Most amp nuts are utterly fascinated by Fender’s rapid evolution from archaic to modern through the course of the 1950s. Within that arc, the transitional moments are often among the…

Keith Richards’ 1963 Gibson SG Custom

Ready to Ramble

In 1961, Gibson introduced the double-cutaway Les Paul to replace the original version, which had been endorsed by guitarist Les Paul since being developed in 1952. Redesigned in response to…

The National Silvo Electric Hawaiian

One of the most innovative companies of the pre-World-War-II era, National found out quickly that innovation was a double-edged sword. Just as their resonator guitars of the late 1920s made…

Epiphone C-10

A nylon-string good for beginners, experts alike

The sound of a nylon-string guitar has captivated musicians and listeners for decades. However, unless you're a classical guitar "artist," chances are your main axe isn't a nylon string. My…

Gibson Les Paul Special 3/4

Gibson’s double-cutaway Les Paul Special 3/4 from 1959 is one of the rarest Les Pauls from the “golden era.” It’s also one of the more unusual in that it may…

Wolf Marshall

Jazz-Lore Generator

Wolf Marshall was absorbing music before he could walk or talk. Born to a mother who was a concert pianist, he napped beneath the instrument as she practiced pieces by…

Fresher Guitars

Fresher Guitars

Epic poetry is great, but all these long treatises on the massive guitar pedigrees of Kay and Aria have made me feel a bit like a Milton scholar, a fate…

Supro’s 600R DeLuxe

Supro’s 600R DeLuxe

“The Magic of Concert Hall Sound”

In the early days of reverb, no one was thinking about surf music; they were striving instead to replicate the warm, resonant, live sound of a concert hall. So, when…

Matching Mojo

During the “guitar boom” of the 1960s, one method of getting a band noticed was to equip it with matching instruments and maybe matching amplifiers. Better still, add matching stage…

Gibson Style U

Harp Guitar

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Tele of Two Legends

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One day in the mid 1950s, up-and-coming thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker was playing host to his friend, bandleader Hank Penny, who had come calling with a special gift in a…