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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
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…
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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…
Eko’s “Celluloid” ’60s Basses
Cool or Gaudy?
By the early 1960s, Europe’s industrial bases had mostly recovered from World War II. Many musical-instrument manufacturers stuck to products…
Gretsch’s “Golden” Tenors
In the 1950s and early ’60s, the electric guitar was establishing itself as a key part of the new voice…
Geddy Lee
Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and Weird
Nearly two years in the making, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass: A Compendium of the Rare, Iconic, and…
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…
Easy Pickins
The Fine Art of Pick Collecting
You collect guitar picks? Is this a joke? Umm, no…and in a world where books are dedicated to the collectibility of happy meal toys, why should an interest in guitar…
Guild Aristocrat M-75
Guild didn’t intro-duce a true solidbody electric guitar until 1963, but the Aristocrat of 1954 gave the appearance that Guild was competing head-to-head with Gibson’s new Les Paul Model. However,…
1968 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Silver Serenade
Amplifier collectors swarm to models with descriptors like “first year” and “golden age,” but other types can be far more interesting; a transitional model or amp from a short-lived evolutionary…
National Style O
Although it has never been the favorite guitar of Hawaiian players, National’s Style O, with its shining metal body and tropical imagery, stands today as one of the strongest icons…
Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux
A Return to Glory for “Jerry”
In 1977, I was doing guitar repair in Big Rapids, Michigan, and my services included picking up and delivering repair instruments for several stores. One was Schafer Music, in Mount…
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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…
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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…
Jimmy James’ Psychedelic R&B
“Parlor Strut” on a vintage Harmony! Proving that ’60s import guitars can make cool sounds, Parlor Greens guitarist Jimmy James…
Coral Electric Sitar
For centuries, Indian musicians have utilized the resonant sympathetic strings of the sitar to create the unique sounds of classical Indian…
Classics: June 2022
David Hood’s Alembic Bass
Like the engineers and musicians who, in the ’60s and ’70s, helped create legendary songs at FAME Studios and its…
The Thompson Tremor Bender
Big Bend
Longtime musician and professional tool-and-die maker Don Thompson recently introduced the Tremor Bender, a retrofit stringbending device for most Fender-…
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…
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…
VG Q&A: Jimi Flip
Plus, Precision Bass rests and an odd Galliano
I’ve never read why Jimi Hendrix played and set up a right-hand Strat to play left-handed. Surely, he could’ve found a lefty model. Does anybody know? – Garry Curry The…
Jimmy Day’s 1950 Fender Super-Amp
Just Like Hank
As fascinating as we might find any vintage amplifier, at its heart, it’s often just a dusty box of archaic technology. Occasionally, though, one is a nexus to a point…
Classics: November 2023
Al Caiola’s Gretsch Prototype
Robby Zolezzi has been a touring pro guitarist since he was 18 years old, having taken up the instrument at 11, spurred by TV and movie themes played by Al Caiola emanating from…
Vox AC50
Vox AC50 Preamp tubes: one ECC82 (12AU7), three ECC83 (12AX7) Output tubes: two EL34s, fixed-biased Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Volume, Treble and Bass for each channel. Output: nominally 50 watts RMS,…
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Classics: Jeremy Graf’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster
A lifelong vintage-guitar nut who has had “a million guitars,” Jeremy Graf’s all-time favorite is this 1961 Stratocaster. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Graf was just seven when, for reasons he doesn’t remember, he asked for an Elvis Presley record. His mother obliged and brought home Elvis’ Golden Records, a compilation of ’50s hits. “That
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Rising Rockers
Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
In an era when the sub-20-watt combo is arguably the most popular guitar-amp format, it’s worth remembering that several classics of the category emanate from the ’50s. And just as interesting as the well-worn favorites, several lesser-known alternatives were also born in the decade of rock and roll. In the December ’24 issue, we examined
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Classics: Marc Schoenberger’s Rickenbacker Combo 600
Marc Schoenberger was part of the early-’70s vanguard on the Southern California guitar scene – not as a gigging musician, but among the crowd that raced the 101 freeway to check out old guitars every time a new issue of the Recycler hit the streets. He’d also been repairing guitars for friends and local shops
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The Supro Thunderbolt S6420
Lightning Strikes
Despite their catalog-grade status, Supro amps have been used by several noteworthy guitarists. For many, the sturdy Thunderbolt is the preferred workhorse. It’s been a long time since Supro amps were any kind of secret find or hidden gem; players have long recognized the eccentric splendors of certain mid-sized examples, with their thumping tremolo and
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Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings
Double-bound for Glory
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success came early and their lap steels set standards of quality, performance, and tone. On the other hand, the company’s electric bass viols and violins excited segments of the industry but never sold well. Same for
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Joey Molland
The word “underrated” is belabored in music journalism, but Joey Molland was just that. As co-guitarist in Badfinger, he was part of a quartet signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, yielding glorious AM hits like “Come and Get It,” “Day After Day,” and “No Matter What.” The foursome fell into obscurity and tragedy a few
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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…
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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…
Roy Orbison’s Marshall Model 1961
Dream Baby
One of the most-desirable vintage amplifiers ever made goes by a name it never officially had. Possibly the first Marshall…
1933 Gibson L-5 “Special”
Though many collectors focus on instruments in fine original condition, every so often one emerges that, regardless of condition, is…
Gretsch Rancher
“A spectacular model in real he-man outdoor Western finish with powerful appeal for Hill-billy and Cowboy bands.” This is how…
The Watkins Clubman
The hokey, amphetamine-tempo’d folk music known as “skiffle” was all the rage with Britain’s youth in 1955, and rock and…
