• Tommy Castro

    Classic Instruments

    Tommy Castro

    Circling Back

    In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his soul-infused music, informed by the blues, R&B, pop, and rock and delivered with conviction. Beloved for his guitar work and vocal style, he has carved his own niche. Born and raised in San Jose, California,…

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National Westwood and Glenwood

'60s alt-materials make short run

Westwood 75 While the mantra for 21st century “alternative material” guitars focuses on carbon fiber (i.e. Rainsong acoustics) and wood/glass/carbon fiber/epoxy composites (i.e. Ken Parker’s Fly line), electric guitars made…

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…

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…

1944 Martin 00-28

This Martin 00-28 is a highly unusual instrument. Made as part of a group of six created with shop-order number 366 (dated 12/14/1944) and bearing serial numbers 90002 through 90007,…

Gibson ES-175 Special Wurlitzer

1955 Gibson ES-175 Special Wurlitzer From Gibson’s early years through the 1960s, the company made many custom instruments that mixed and matched specifications from various models. Few have been as…

Gibson L-00

1933 Gibson L-00

While most of the instruments featured in this space are high-end, often elaborately ornamented models that were expensive when new and command high prices today as collectible, the L-00 was…

1904 José Ramírez I

Possibly no name is more associated with the classical guitar than that of José Ramírez (1858-1923), the founder of a long dynasty of Madrid makers dating from the late 19th…

The Yosco No. 2

Tenor Banjo

The banjo and American music cross paths in a remarkably entangled web of complexity. The banjo was brought to the New World – conceptually, at least – by African slaves…

PRS Basses

Subjective Funk & Cool

The Paul Reed Smith bass was introduced at the January ’96 NAMM show. Set-neck and bolt-on (CE model) models were offered, with mahogany bodies and one-piece mahogany necks. On Bass…

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…

Stratospheric Variations

A History of offset double-cut guitars

When you think about it, it’s quite remarkable how few guitar archetypes there really are. By “archetypes” we’re referring to aesthetic design, or shapes. If you pull back and squint,…

Peavey RJ-IV

Peavey RJ-IV bass, serial number 04938996. Photo: Bill Ingalls Jr. Instrument courtesy of Naffaz Skota. Americans by the millions “know” Randy Jackson. But not many realize that his gig as…

Zemaitis Guitar

Tony Z and the Cult of the Zemaitis Guitar

While England has produced some notable guitar brands, such as Burns, Shergold and Eggle, it is rare for an individual maker to gain acceptance in a world where an “established…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Adding Master Volume to a Les Paul

Plus One

My friend Alex Aguilar recently asked me to do something most guitarists would consider sacrilegious – add a Master Volume pot to a Les Paul, and put it in easy…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux, Part 2

Full House: Transcendent Jazz Masterpiece

In the November issue, we started to refurbish a doubleneck mandolin/guitar I made for Jerry Schafer in 1977. It needed a new wiring harness, tuners, binding repair, new frets, and…

Andy Peake – Roots Without Boundaries

Andy Peake – Roots Without Boundaries Andy Peake is a drummer/percussionist with a long list of accomplished-guitarist friends. For proof, take a listen to his new album, “Pocket Change.” Here,…

Saga of Ted Newman Jones

A Guitar for Mr. Richards

The Saga of Ted Newman Jones

For anyone who visited the tiny workshop inhabited by guitar builder Ted Newman Jones in the 1970s and ’80s, two things were obvious – his appreciation for the fine tonewoods…

Gibson’s 17″ Pre-War Electrics

ES-300 of 1940-’43

Among musicians and collectors, Gibson’s pre-World-War-II ES-300 may be less popular today than the ES-250, but in terms of sheer numbers, it was Gibson’s most popular 17″ pre-war electric, despite…

Intriguing Twosome

A Look at Gibson’s EB-6

As the ’50s drew to a close, Gibson was locked in a heated battle with Fender for a share of the high-end electric-guitar market. But when it came to the…

Rossmeisl Guitars

Father and Son Operation

The story of Roger Rossmeisl’s career in the guitar industry had its roots with his father, Wenzel. Wenzel was born around 1900, Roger in 1927 in northern Germany, near the…

Gibson Goldtops

Molten Mojo, Head-To-Head Vintage Versus Reissue

In the good ol’ days of 1952, jazzmeister Les Paul strutted to the center of the world’s stage and proudly whipped out his golden Gibson electric guitar. Simple-minded purists howled…

Eastwood EEB-1 and EUB-1 Basses

Horizontal Vibe

Eastwood’s EEB-1 and the EUB-1 take their design inspiration from Ampeg’s quirky mid-’60s Horizontal Bass series, the brainchild of Dennis Kager, an amp technician and guitar specialist who worked for…

Family Feud

The Les Paul Junior Tone Showdown

What’s All This Excitement About Les Paul Juniors? First it was PAF-equipped Les Pauls, then dot-neck 335s. You know, all the really expensive, elitist “vehicles of tone.” I couldn’t be…

Parsons-White String Bender

On September 20, 1983, Jimmy Page re-emerged into the public eye after the death of John Bonham and the breakup of Led Zeppelin with a thundering ovation at the Royal…

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…

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…

Ampeg R-12-R Reverberocket

1962 Ampeg R-12-R Reverberocket Preamp tubes: two 6SL7, two 6SN7 Output tubes: two 6V6, cathode-biased Rectifier: 5Y3 Controls: Volume, Tone, Dimension (reverb), Speed, and Intensity (tremolo) Speakers: Jensen Special Design…

A.J.’s 1950 Fender Broadcaster

$10 at a time

In 1950, A.J. Custer traded his triple-neck steel for a white-guard Broadcaster. Total cost was around $300, which he paid in $10 installments over three years. Fifty years later, we…

Fender 
Telecaster Thinline

Weight-Loss Trial

Born in turbulent times on the downslope of the “guitar boom,” Fender’s Telecaster Thinline has always existed in the shadow of its classic older sibling. But it does not lack…

Vega Director Model A-60

Enticing Extras

A worthy vintage combo in all regards, there’s sad irony in the fact the Director Model A-60 is representative of the downward trajectory of Vega, the company founded in 1881…