• 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…

The Fender AA165 Pro Reverb

March 11, 2019 · Dave Hunter

Fender’s “blackface” amplifiers made from late 1963 through ’67 have earned enduring “classic amp” status. Simultaneously collectible, they’re desired for…

1939 Gibson Super 400 Premier

February 28, 2017 · George Gruhn

The Gibson Super 400 debuted in 1935 as the first production-model 18″ archtop guitar with f-shaped sound holes; 30 years…

Ampeg VT-22

Ampeg VT-22

October 15, 2015 · Dave Hunter

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

The Gretsch 6169 Electromatic Twin Western

June 10, 2020 · Dave Hunter

What good was selling a newfangled electric guitar back at the dawn of the revolution if you didn’t have an…


Thomas Custom Guitars

Rarities from the Pacific Northwest

Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich…

22 Classic Modulation Effects

Mod Squad

We celebrate devices that have altered the pitch, intensity, frequency, phase, and other characteristics in the sound, feel, and influence of our favorite heroes and songs.

Harp Legend Charlie Musselwhite

Stringin’ on “Blue Lounge” Harp legend Charlie Musselwhite has recorded and performed with a stunning array of guitarists in his band – Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Robben Ford, Junior Watson,…

Universal Audio’s OX Amp Top Box

The Tube Abides

Since the mid ’60s, electrical engineers have been trying to drive a stake into the heart of the vacuum tube, first with transistors, then with zeros and ones. Yet the…

Epiphone Empero1965 Main

1965 Epiphone Emperor

The Epiphone Emperor has a long, convoluted history. It first appeared in Epiphone’s catalog in late 1935 as a response to Gibson’s Super 400, which was introduced in late 1934.…

  • 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…

Teisco Del Rey Basses

’60s Egalitarianism from Japan

July 13, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

Teisco Del Rey basses from the 1960s are exemplary of the Japanese-made instruments that swept into the American market like…

Parsons/White StringBender

August 17, 2017 · Edward B. Driscoll Jr.

From the origins of country-rock to Jimmy Page, Metallica, and a slew of modern country-pickin’ wizards, the string bender lends…

The Supro “Model 24”

July 25, 2014 · Dave Hunter

Okay, Zep police, sound the alarm and prepare to loose the hounds – we are finally about to lift the…

Hanburt Electric Guitars

Rarities From the Pacific Northwest

April 28, 2020 · Peter Blecha

As a brand of American electric instruments, the name “Hanburt” is about the furthest thing from being a household term.…


Cole Eclipse Pro Special

Straight-from-the-catalog instruments are fun – and reassuring – because you know exactly what you’ve got. But there’s another kind of thrill – and satisfaction – when you find something that’s…

Tony Mottola

Mr. Big, Guitar Pioneer

Some argue that Tony Mottola was more legendary than famous. In a career spanning 50 years, the guitarist logged thousands of studio dates and made hundreds of concert and television…

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…

Classics: April 2023

Kim Simmons’ 1973 Gibson Les Paul

For Gio da Silva and several million others in Generation X, the mid ’90s were an exciting time. Young adults when music was experiencing a blues revival spirit-guided by Stevie…

National Style O

Industrial Art

National. The name is patriotic! And what else but American inventiveness could have brought about a metal-bodied guitar? The answer lies in the state of the guitar as a musical…

Dan’s Guitar RX: A New Tool Makes Luthiery Easier

With a Little Help…

I recently discovered a sturdy pedestal stand that holds a guitar by its neck and makes repair, builds, and setup jobs better, safer, and easier, especially for someone who doesn’t…

  • 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…

The Airline GIM 9151A

After The Fall

October 13, 2021 · Dave Hunter

1970 Montgomery Ward Airline GIM 9151A Preamp tubes: three 12AX7 Output tubes: four 6L6GC Rectifier: solid-state Controls: Volume, Treble, Bass…

Gibson’s 1966-’70 Flying V

In Detail

July 1, 2020 · Ward Meeker

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…

Steve Evans’ Guitars & Cars Passion Project

Pretty Pairs

April 12, 2023 · Ward Meeker

Steve Evans was just 12 years old in 1968, when he began to appreciate the sleek bodies of electric guitars…

Italian Smorgasbord

The Goya Rangemaster 116 SB

April 27, 2020 · Michael Wright

American guitars made in the 1950s and ’60s constitute an almost-holy canon, yet most players in that era took their…