• 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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Gibson J-185

Flat-top worthy of comparison

One of the most-fabled flat-top guitars Gibson ever produced is the Gibson J-185. Introduced in 1951, and discontinued in ’59, only 270 natural-finish and 648 sunburst J-185s were made. Guitarists…

Fender Precision Elite II

Sleeper Axe, Gorgeous Finish

If you could only see the beautiful hue of this Precision Elite II finished in Sienna Burst, you’d melt. Arguably the most devastating of Fender’s bursts, this finish was made…

Rickenbacker Electric 12-String

Double-bound for Glory

George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success with musicians came early. Rick steels were the measure of…

Pop ’N Hiss: Taste

Breakout Blues

The ’60s may have been the most musically significant decade in the history of popular music, but very few countries were represented then or in the years that followed. Fronted…

Guitar Picks

The Fine Art of Pick Collecting

“You’re collecting guitar picks!? Is this a joke?” I can’t recall how often I’ve been accosted with this query. At this point I pull from my pocket (and how often…

Classics: October 2022

Eddie Quinn’s Gibson L-5

Had you been a music-loving resident of Bogalusa, Louisiana, at the height of the jazz age, you would’ve caught wind of a young virtuoso who made the violin sound like…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 6

1964: Nu-Sonics and Transistor Trials

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 4, 5, and 6 for this special edition of…

The Burke Guitar

The Axe that Time Forgot

For more than 60 years, aluminum has been used as a component in guitar construction. Exactly whose idea it was originally has never been a cut-and-dried matter of fact, but…

Wes Beech

Life in The Plasmatics

From the moment he met Rod Swenson and Wendy O. Williams, things for Wes Beech were never really “normal.” Walking into the basement of their loft for an audition, Beech…

Alamo Guitars

Remember the Alamo, Part 1

Mention the Alamo and most of us conjure up a rich variety of images. Whether it’s Davy Crockett (Fess Parker, maybe John Wayne) swinging his flintlock rifle as General Santa…

Round-Up Range

Rolling on a Post-Pandemic Project

Five years ago, I started making a Tele-style guitar inspired by the Gretsch Roundup. When Covid hit, I was up to my ears in repair work and lost my shop…

Gibson Hawiian Guitars

EH-100 and EH-150

Introduction “No longer is the electric Hawaiian Guitar restricted to professional players – here is a genuine Gibson instrument that costs only $100, complete with instrument, case, amplifier with slip…

Fresher Guitars

Fresher Guitars

Epic poetry is great, but all these long treatises on the massive guitar pedigrees of Kay and Aria have made me feel a bit like a Milton scholar, a fate…

The Fender “Korinacaster”

Double-Cut Kuriosity

There’s irony in the fact that Leo Fender, creator of the first solidbody electric guitar to be mass-produced, wasn’t the adventurous sort. Rather, history tells us he was a pragmatic,…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Restoring a Vintage Jazz Bass

Mashed Fender

The owner of a ’62 Jazz Bass recently sent it to my shop for repair and renovation. He’d bought it new when he was 14 and, when customized guitars became…

Steve Vai

Relentless Explorer

More than 40 years into his career, Steve Vai is still pushing himself as a musician and exploring the boundaries of the guitar. A new custom, multi-neck Ibanez called The…

Watkins Scout

Merit Badge

Watkins amps never landed big stars, or at least didn’t hold on to the endorsements of guitarists once they became big stars. Various Beatles shared a small late-’50s Westminster from…

The Gibson Starfire TR 1000 RVT

Trans-Galactic Toneway

Relatively unsung among early entrants to the field of solid-state guitar amplifiers, Gibson was the first high-output, high-quality manufacturer to bring one to market. And while it quickly proved the…

The Vox AC15

AMP-O-RAMA

The Vox AC30 grabbed most of the headlines for years, but many tonehounds have come to appreciate the sweet, juicy glories of the smaller AC15, particularly in the wake of…

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…

Travis Bean Interview

Metal Machine Music – The Next Phase

“Bean is Back!” proclaimed the signs at a recent California guitar show. Indeed, Travis Bean, builder of the short-lived-but-legendary ’70s instruments that bear his name, has reentered the guitar-manufacturing arena…

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…

The Rogue VB-100 Violin Bass

Fab As It Looks?

The Rogue VB-100 Series II is an homage to the venerable Höfner 500/1 semi-hollowbody. Popularly known as the “Beatle bass,” this axe was used by Paul McCartney on many early/mid-’60s…

Gibson’s K-4 Mandocello

Gibson K-4 Mandocello photo: Kelsey Vaughn. Instrument courtesy of Walter Carter. Gibson was founded as a mandolin builder in 1902, and from the outset it promoted a standardized, wide-ranging family…

Reverend Freakchild – Surprises at Every Turn!

Pushing Boundaries of Blues, Folk, and Rock After a smash-and-grab from his car a few years ago, Reverend Freakchild made this National N-series his main squeeze. Here, they show us…

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…

Schecter Yngwie Malmsteen

1986 Schecter Yngwie Malmsteen For most of the 1970s I didn’t listen to or play electric guitar music of any kind, only acoustic music. I did, on occasion, read about…

The Gibson Les Paul Model

Photo: Robert Parks, courtesy George Gruhn. Its official name – Les Paul model – doesn’t do it justice. After all, Gibson has made over a hundred different Les Paul models…

1962 Gretsch Country Gentleman Custom

Atkins Oddity

By the early 1960s, the Fred Gretsch Company was riding high with an array of eye-catching electric guitars highlighted with models endorsed by Chet Atkins. At the top were the…

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,…