• 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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Martin 000-18HS

The Martin 000-18HS

According to Martin company records and research by late Martin Historian Mike Longworth, Cable Piano Company, in Atlanta, special-ordered at least three Martin 000-18HS guitars in 1937. Two others have…

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…

Classics: October 2023

Michael Bloomfield 1963 Fender Stratocaster

Antonio Mazzara’s passion for music started at age 10, when he started playing a nylon-string classical guitar before moving up to a sunburst ’72 Strat and a ’68 Princeton Reverb…

Matchless DC-30

Matchless DC-30

Preamp Tubes: One EF86, three 12AX7s (one for PI) Output Tubes: Four EL84s in class A, cathode-bias. Rectifier: GZ34 Controls: Channel 1 – Volume, Bass, Treble: Channel 2 – Volume,…

Tokai Talbo

For aficionados of copy guitars – replicas of mostly American classics that give U.S. manufacturers apoplectic fits – perhaps no company is more respected than Tokai, whose 1970s and early-’80s…

Ralph Novak

Philosophy of the Luthier

I first met Ralph Novak in 1980, when he was working at Subway Guitars in Berkeley, California. I’d assembled a kit Strat and it needed a refret. My monstrosity was…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend

What Goes Around…

I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I learned to play guitar during the folk boom that, for me, started with the Kingston Trio in 1959; their music led…

Gibson Guitars

The Experimental '70s

That guitar collectors are a conservative lot has always struck me as curious. You’d think that the instrument which “killed fascists,” in the immortal Woody Guthrie’s phrase, would inspire a…

Familiar Names Create Music as J&B Brothers

Austin-Powered

The J&B Brothers make a sound equal parts Texas country, blues, folkie, rock, jazz, and soul – the spices that make music from the region so damn tasty. They’re also…

Jimmy Bryant

Country-Jazz Virtuoso

When Leo Fender strode into a cowboy bar on the outskirts of Hollywood one day in 1950, he had no idea the contraption he was toting would become a central…

Gizmotron

Most Bizarre Guitar Effect of All Time?

Led Zeppelin’s final studio album, 1979’s In Through The Out Door, opens with an eerie, otherworldly drone that weaves and winds its way before segueing into the searing Stratocaster riffs…

Fender 1957 Shoreline Gold Strat

30 Years under the Bed

Surely, as guitar collectors/dealers/enthusiasts, VG readers have heard folkloric stories of early-1960’s teenagers who, after buying cool guitars to jam with their friends in the basement or garage, were called…

G.L. Stiles Solidbody

Every once in awhile, a guitar comes out of left field. In the case of this solidbody electric labeled “Lee Stiles,” the throw came from West Virginia by way of…

Electra MPC

Standard X340

One of the more successful Japanese-made guitar brands of the 1970s was Electra, the brand name used for electric guitars sold by St. Louis Music of St. Louis, Missouri.  If…

How Ron Wood’s New Barbarians Saved the Stones

Ear-to-Ear Violence

Today, the Rolling Stones continue to perform live, more than 50 years since their first gig. But few realize how an unsung side project formed and funded by Ron Wood…

Gibson’s First Cherry Red 335

It came from the Books

Gibson introduced the ES-335T in the spring of 1958 as the progenitor to its double-cutaway,semi-hollow body “thinline” series of guitars. Characterized by the maple block running down their centers, most…

'39 Gibson EH-185

’39 Gibson EH-185

Preamp tubes: three 6J7, one 6N7 Output tubes: two 6L6 Rectifier: 5U4 Controls: Instrument Volume, Microphone Volume, Bass and Treble Speakers: one 12″ field-coil speaker Output: approximately 20 watts RMS…

The First “Mary Kaye” Stratocaster

The Fender “Mary Kaye” Stratocaster. A term guitar aficionados have come to associate with a ’50s Strat with blond finish with gold-plated hardware… Although Mary Kaye never owned one and…

National Bel-Air, Photo courtesy George Gruhn Big thmbnail

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…

Tyler Morris and a 1953 Gibson Les Paul model

Tyler Morris and a 1953 Gibson Les Paul model Tyler Morris showcases his 1953 Gibson Les Paul goldtop and GA-70 amp. Keep up with Tyler at www.tylerdmorris.com.

Pieces of a Prototype

Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar

  If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

Orange OR80 Combo

Sunshine State

Created when amps were huge and men were men – or at least had roadies to carry the gear – this 1972 Orange OR80 2×12″ combo veritably screams bell-bottomed rock…

Paul Reed Smith Guitars

The World of Paul Reed Smith

Just after we entered the small, crowded office, the door burst open and an intruder blurted out, “Excuse me. Check this out. Is it right?” The company’s R&D chief handed…

Hangin’ with Kid and Lisa “Little Baby” Andersen

Smooth, Funky Blues With Soul Kid Andersen worked with Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop before scoring his current gig with Rick Estrin & the Nightcats. One of the best blues…

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Gibson 1958-’60 Les Paul Standard

A ’Burst by Any Other Name…

One Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twelve. That’s the number of Les Paul Standards Gibson produced between 1958 and 1960. Amongst guitar collectors, it means there aren’t many seats in the “’Burst Club.”…

The Cost of Protection

100 Years of Instrument Cases

Modern guitars are typically sold with a hard case. But that wasn’t always so. Here, we look at the history of the relationship between cases, guitars, and those who’ve bought…

Hanburt Electric Guitars

Rarities From the Pacific Northwest

As a brand of American electric instruments, the name “Hanburt” is about the furthest thing from being a household term. Nevertheless, the recently documented saga behind this obscure line of…

Audiovox #736

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…

Marcus King

Swamp Guide

Marcus King is a guitar slingin’ powerhouse barnstormer. Unlike most contemporary pop music – heavy on production, low on everything else – King’s new album, Young Blood, propels music fans…

Tracii Guns

Black Diamond Shine

There’s no denying that with Tracii Guns manning L.A. Guns’ lead-guitar slot, the sleaze veterans become a different animal. Since re-entering the fold in 2016, Guns – a single-cut-wielding maestro…