• Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery

    Classic Instruments

    Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery

    Jon Butcher tales his Olympic White ’63 Strat for a rip on “Jam,” a track from his new album, “Nuthin’ but Soul.” The disc is an homage to sounds of Motown, Stax, James Brown, and Sly Stone highlighted by Butcher’s mastery of Hendrix-style psychedelia. It was recorded using a ’63 Princeton, a Vibrolux, and a…

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Gibson Basses in The ’70s

Gibson Basses in The ’70s

Plucky Trio from the “Downer Decade”

Guitar enthusiasts have long heard that the 1970s were the “downer decade” for Fender and Gibson, both of which introduced a few duds and struggled with quality control. Their travails…

Gibson’s Style O Artist Guitar and K-4 Mandocello

Gibson’s Style O Artist Guitar and K-4 Mandocello

Two For the Scroll

The mandolin originated in the Middle East as a bowl-back instrument. Crusaders brought it back to Europe and early Italian builders evolved the design, giving it four paired strings tuned…

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…

Zakk Wylde

Doomsayer

Best-known as Ozzy Osbourne’s longest-tenured guitarist, Zakk Wylde has also been the leader of Black Label Society since the late ’90s. With Ozzy off the road in 2021, Wylde has…

Teisco Guitars, Part I

Rock 'n' Roll Dreams, Part I

Few non-American guitar brands have meant so much to so many American guitar buffs as Teisco guitars. Indeed, through their mid-’60s connection with the Sears and Roebuck company, many a…

Gibson Les Paul Juniors

Beauties in Black: Two Rare Gibson Les Paul Juniors

Guitar dealers tell guitar stories much like anglers tell fish stories. There are those they “got” and those that got away, and either can render reactions ranging from a sigh…

Albert King’s Flying Vs

Kings Ransom: Seagal, Gibbons, and Albert King's Flying Vs

In a quiet, wooded canyon blissfully removed from the hustle and bustle of nearby Hollywood and the roar of Pacific Coast Highway, sits the very private retreat and Shangri-La of…

Fender “Wide-Panel” Twin

The Fender “Wide-Panel” Twin

While Fender’s high-powered 5F8-A Twin of 1958-’60 (VG, March ’09) has been much raved about in recent years, there’s a lot to be said for a Twin that’s closer to…

Holy Cripes!

The Story of Jerry Garcia’s Last Guitars

Steve Cripe left a unique legacy in the annals of music history. He was not a guitar player, not a songwriter. In fact, you may not even know his name.…

Epiphone’s Zephyr Emperor Regent

1955 Epiphone Zephyr Emperor Regent. Instrument courtesy of Lloyd Chiate. Photo: Billy Mitchell, courtesy George Gruhn. Epiphone’s Zephyr Emperor Regent of the early 1950s represents not only the most deluxe…

Nick Moss – clean and tasty on “Scratch N Sniff”

Instro-rock, fully greased Get ready to have your funtime socks knocked off, ‘cuz this exclusive Nick Moss run through “Scratch N Sniff” is dangerous! A track from his latest album,…

The Gretsch 1955-’61 White Falcon

Jimmie Webster’s Master Showpiece

Mike Campbell: Rick Gould. When it came to fancy electric guitars in the early/mid 1950s, Gibson’s Super 400 was ensconced as the undisputed King of the Hill. Through the years,…

Six-Strings, 60 Years Ago

A Likely First

Had he survived to this day, Elvis Presley – cultural icon extraordinaire – would be 80 years old. The man who would rise from very modest means to become arguably…

Hagstrom Guitars

The Fastest Necks

Ca. ’73 Hagstrom Viking I N also known in the U.S. as the Scandia. Part 2 This month we continue the Hagstrom saga. To recap: the Hagstrom company was founded…

Cry, Baby!

The Story of the Vox Wah

Beyond being crowned “Album of the Century” by Time magazine, Marley and the Wailers’ 1977 LP Exodus is a wah-wah masterpiece thanks to Junior Marvin and his Thomas Organ Cry…

Fender California Stratocaster

Have you priced ’57 or ’62 reissue Strats recently? The pride of the Fender line ran about $750 when it was introduced in 1982, but today you’d be hard-pressed to…

Simon Adahl’s 1958 Höfner 162

Missing Link

He may not be part of anthropological history like Dutch paleontologist Eugene Dubois, but Simon Adahl did have to dig a bit to discover this “missing link” – a first-version…

Tom Petersson’s Gretsch 12-string Basses

Tricked-Out Trio

Cheap Trick fans are aware of his contribution to the band’s songs, but few know he actually invented the 12-string electric bass and has been using one since 1977 to…

The History of Hamer

High-End Boutique or Budget Vintage?

“We didn’t quite get it,” explains company cofounder Jol Dantzig, discussing the birth of Hamer Guitars. “It was kind of a mistake. When we created Hamer, we created the high-end…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 7

1965: Summer Of The Hollowbodies

The Way Back Beat survey of instruments designed by James Ormston Burns continues with the final products developed by his company before it was bought out by U.S. keyboard manufacturer…

Rocky Athas’ Texas ’Tude!

Genuine Lone Star Jams Dallas guy Rocky Athas built a career playing blues in the vain of T-Bone and SRV, but his new album, “Livin’ My Best Life,” is more…

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…

Gibson Reissue ’58 Flying V

The Phantom V

A number of years ago I purchased a reissue/limited edition Gibson Flying V constructed in the 1958/59 configuration (strings through the body type). Upon inspection, I took note of the…

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Kustom’s The Bag

A New Dimension in Electro-Thoracity

When Steppenwolf’s John Kay took the stage, it was easy to believe he was performing a suitably ’60s ceremony celebrating the wine god Bacchus, thanks to what looked like a…

Domino Californian Rebel

Instrument Profile

California. The Left Coast. It was probably home to North America’s earliest inhabitants, as emigrants from Asia crossed the Bering Strait and began their march toward South America. But California…

Marty Friedman’s Melodic Grandeur

Vintage Strat, new style on “Illumination” A devout Jackson user with a longstanding signature model, Fender Strat that’s also heard on the record. Read our cover feature and a review…

Standard in Custom

Schecter’s Custom Shop Marks 35 Years

Riding high after 35 years with an array of original instruments, an impressive artist roster that started early with Pete Townshend and Mark Knopfler, and a line of high-gain amplifiers,…

Wandré Modele Karak

We all recognize that guitars are art, but rarely has the instrument been as consciously approached from this perspective by the maker as with the ’60s creations of Wandré Pioli.

Teisco Guitars, Part I

Rock 'n' Roll Dreams, Part I

Few non-American guitar brands have meant so much to so many American guitar buffs as Teisco guitars. Indeed, through their mid-’60s connection with the Sears and Roebuck company, many a…

Maestro GA-45T

AMP-O-RAMA

Until just a couple years ago, Fender really was the only major name in collectible vintage American-made tube guitar amplifiers. Sure, Magnatone, Standel, Danelectro/Silvertone, Supro and the other Valco-made amps…