• 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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Ampeg Gemini II G-15

Ampeg Gemini II G-15

Preamp tubes: three 12AX7, one 6CG7, one 7199. Output tubes: two 7868. Rectifier: solidstate Controls: volume, treble and bass on each channel; echo (reverb) and speed and intensity (tremolo) on…

Gibson’s “SG” Les Paul

Classic Shape That Filled Big Shoes

In 1961, Gibson replaced the single-cutaway Les Paul with a new line of lighter, thinner, mahogany double-cut solidbodies. Developed under the aegis of Ted McCarty and introduced as the “new…

Geddy Lee

Bass Conservator

In its 40-plus years, Rush evolved on its own terms. Mixing rock and jazz influences, the band’s 19 studio albums fostered a cultish fan base of prog-rockers, headbangers, and others…

Ray Cummins – I’ll See You In My Dreams

Ray Cummins Plays the 1956 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype “Dark Eyes” VG ace online tutor Ray Cummins uses the famed ’56 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype to play “I’ll…

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…

Electro-Harmonix’s Mike Matthews

EH is Back!

EH is back!” So ran the ad copy for the Electro-Harmonix Corporation in the early 1980s. By that time, the company had been in business well over 10 years and…

Rex Solidbody

Italian Connection

An internet search for “Rex guitars” will turn up a fair – if confusing – amount of information about the brand used on budget guitars and banjos made by Gretsch…

Ampeg Dan Armstrong Bass

1969 Revisited and Improved

I remember the first time I saw a ‘1969 Dan Armstrong lucite bass. I was in awe of the materials and its cool shape and sound. Over the years I…

National-Dobro 6107A

National-Dobro 6107A

Preamp tubes: 56, 57 Output tubes: two 2A3 Rectifier: 5Z3 Controls: Volume Output: 6 watts RMS +/- Speaker: one 10″ Lansing Model 112 Why doesn’t this ever happen to us?…

Kevin Keaton’s 1958 Esquire

Swamp Thing

June 10, 2020, was a summer night like most in the life of Kevin Keaton, a postal mail carrier and guitarist who gigs in an acoustic duo and an AC/DC…

The Modulus Graphite Flight 6 Monocoque

High-/Low-Tech

In guitar history, irony is almost always the result of circumstances. The market changes overnight or someone makes a mistake that proves successful, etc. Rarely is the irony planned by…

Vintage Instrument Research

An Ever-Changing Landscape

Fretted instruments can be examined in much the same way as zoological taxonomist or forensic pathologist would approach them. They fit well into a Linnaean taxonomic order, and in fact…

Ampeg Dan Armstrong Bass

1969 Revisited and Improved

I remember the first time I saw a ‘1969 Dan Armstrong lucite bass. I was in awe of the materials and its cool shape and sound. Over the years I…

Marshall 2100 Lead & Bass

Rock Breaker

Adescendant of the legendary “Bluesbreaker” combo that helped launch the cranked-Marshall sound into the annals of rock, the 2100 combo is also one of the rarest post-plexi models – and…

Epihone Deluxe Archtop

Head-On With the L-5

Webster’s latest defines the word “deluxe” as “…notably luxurious, elegant, or expensive.” The Epiphone Deluxe archtop guitar was certainly luxurious. When introduced in 1931, it sported a triple-bound top with…

Prototypes and Pathfinders

Five Amps That Set the Tone – Or Hoped To

Groundbreaking and undeniably collectible guitar amplifiers have made frequent appearances in this space over the years, but so have prototypes, limited runs, rare, or unusual examples that hold a fascination…

Gibson Super 400

Much of America was still recovering from the Depression in 1934 when Gibson introduced a guitar at a price that was almost $100 higher than its current top-of-the-line model, the…

Paul Benjaman: Tulsa twanger

Funky solo from “Undercover of Night” On his new album, “My Bad Side Wants a Good Time,” Paul Benjaman serves up funky stew with bayou bite. Here, he plays the…

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…

Ibanez Model 2020

Like most things, the closer you look at certain phenomena, the more you find often subtle, unexpected surprises. A good example is this Ibanez Model 2020, which dates from around…

Chordal Colorations

Iconic Axes of Different Hues

Though their colors are complementary, Brian May’s Red Special and Brian Setzer’s ’59 Gretsch 6120 couldn’t be more different in terms of their origin or their roles in helping to…

B.C. Rich Guitars

From Flamenco to Heavy Metal

From one perspective, flamenco and heavy metal might seem as far apart as the sun and the moon, but if you think about the hyperbolic emotion involved in both genres,…

Gibson’s Experimental Archtop

Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s. The Gibson company refined the design with the addition of f-holes in 1922, and brought the concept to full potential in…

Tom Petersson

Lower-End Innovator

It’s been a long time comin’… Like his longtime bandmate, Rick Nielsen, Cheap Trick bassist/songwriter Tom Petersson collects classic stringed instruments. Now a resident of Nashville, Petersson still plays the…

One of Two of a Kind

Gibson’s L-3 Ganus Brothers Special

Making custom instruments has always been problematic for companies designed to manufacture in quantity. Though it had an unenforced policy against one-off projects, this guitar illustrates how the company did…

1967 Robert Bouchet

One singular work of the late French master Robert Bouchet, whose influence in the world of guitar making was enormous, is an exceptionally fine and well-preserved example from 1967 –…

Martin 00-42 Special

It has all the appoint-ments of a Martin 00-45, particularly the abalone pearl trim around all the borders of the body, but this guitar is entered into Martin’s books as…

Fender Precision Bass

The Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951, was arguably more revolutionary and more influential on popular music than the Telecaster or Stratocaster. As the first commercially successful electric bass, it…

Martin D-1

Not Your Typical Martin

Over the years, I’ve tried to include instruments in this column that were functional and affordable. Occasionally, we’ve lucked out and found spectacular instruments that offer more than your money’s…

Barney Kessel’s ES-350 Rides Again

Return Of An Icon

Bruce Forman acquired Barney Kessel’s beloved Gibson ES-350 in mid 2021. In prep for recording Reunion!, he made the guitar his exclusive daily player. “All it needed was a little…