•  Reverend Sensei H90

    VG Approved Gear

     Reverend Sensei H90

    Live Wire

    So you want a Gibson-style solidbody that can cover humbucker-powered rock, yet also twangier/glassier tones using a P-90 pickup. Check. You also want to grab high frets via double-cutaway and have the pitch reliability of a tune-o-matic bridge and locking tuners. Got it. One more thing: it’s got to look cool and old-school. Hmm…. sounds

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Harden Muddy Waters

Mojo Working

Harden Engineering is a small Chicago shop that specializes in hand-made instruments in a variety of shapes and sizes and aims to bring a custom approach at affordable prices. Its…

Guild Polara Kim Thayil

Get Your Grunge

With Soundgarden, guitarist Kim Thayil helped define the grunge movement. His unusual weapon of choice was the Guild S-100 Polara, a solidbody often unfairly compared to the Gibson SG. Soundgarden…

EarthQuaker Devices Ledges

’Verb Voyage

Billed as a Tri-Dimensional Reverberation Machine, the Earthquaker Ledges boasts a user-friendly interface with no menus or deep MIDI commands to figure out. Its controls are Mix (wet/dry) and Length…

Danelectro Dano Minis

More tasty treats

Danelectro has been busy churning out yet another set of pedals that are inex-pensive and quite small. A good thing, since one can never have too many pedals. These are,…

Gretsch Richard Fortus G6636T-RF Falcon

Flying Fingers

Through the decades, the Gretsch White Falcon has been spied in the hands of everyone from top Nashville session cats to rockers like Neil Young and Billy Duffy of the…

PRS_P22-HOME-MAIN-BIG

PRS P22

Split Personality

PRS P22 Price: $6,092 (as tested, retail), $3630 (street) Info: prsguitars.com. While PRS has for several years offered a piezo bridge-pickup system in its Hollowbody models, it recently worked with…

Knaggs Chena Old Violin

Righteous Axe

With notable string-bending monsters like Larry Mitchell, Eric Steckel, and Steve Stevens singing the praises of Knaggs Guitars, Peter Wolf and Joe Knaggs are obviously doing something incredibly right. Beyond…

Newman Guitars 5 String

Less Is More

Getting one’s hands on a five-string electric like the one Ted Newman Jones built for Keith Richards in the ’70s is a rare treat. Thanks to a partnership with the…

Epiphone 1966 SG G-400 PRO

Epiphone 1966 SG G-400 PRO

For Those About to Rock

Epiphone’s 1966 SG G-400 PRO Price: $582 (list); $349 (street) Info: www.epiphone.com Gibson’s SG is a classic design with plenty of great players behind it, from Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend,…

Area 51 Fuzzwah

Two Great Tastes

Fuzz wahs are nothing new, of course. Released under scores of badge-engineered monikers, they’ve promised aural overload ranging from sirens to tornadoes. Problem is, most have sounded like novelty toys…

Blackbox Effects Inferno, X-Ray, Cobalt, Ultraviolet 2, Oxygen

Stimulating sounds

During a recent chat with our friends at Willie’s Gui-tars, Minneapolis, we were turned on to an interesting new line of boutique stompboxes made by Blackbox Music Electronics – a…

Collings I-30 LC

Desert Island Axe

If you found yourself stranded on that proverbial desert isle with – horror of horrors – just a single guitar at your disposal, the Collings I-30 LC just might make…

Steinberger ZT3 Custom

Ned Lives On

The year is 1979. The disco era is nearing its end and the “Me Generation” is approaching like a freight train. With the impending new decade full of fresh ideas…

Reverend Avenger

Tough, Bold, and Fun

Our first entry this month is a new line of instruments, Reverend Guitars, from veteran inventor Joe Naylor, a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Lutherie, and well-known maker of…

Fender Strat-o-Sonic

Mahogany body, P-90-style pickups, wraparound tailpiece, 243/4″ scale? Sounds like a Gibson Les Paul Special. But alas, the instrument bearing these features looks like a Fender Stratocaster. Recently launched as…

Yamaha DG Stomp

Plug 'n' Play Preamp for Recording

It’s always been a struggle for home recordists to capture a good guitar tone on tape or hard disk. Yamaha, however, wants to cure that often aggravating dilemma. To that…

The JangleBox J-Boost

Seamless Sheen

Twelve years ago, Janglebox founder Steve Lasko set out to create effects pedals that capture the sparkling clean chime made famous by bands like The Beatles and The Byrds. Since…

Fender American Vintage II ’57 Stratocaster

Period Piece

Sure, we all drool over Fender Custom Shop axes, but those instruments are sometimes out of wallet’s reach. Coming to the rescue is Fender’s new American Vintage II series, which…

Gigliotti Special

More Than Just Another Classic-Inspired Axe

The Gigliotti Special is a lot more than just another guitar inspired by a classic design. Rather, it’s a unique-looking custom instrument that sounds as good as it looks. Builder…

ValveTrain 205

Five Watts, Just So

Rick Gessner is a tweed amp enthusiast who has more than made a splash since entering the fray in 2005. His versions of tweed-era Fender classics (with subtle refinements), along…

Devi Ever:FX Big Distortion Sound Machine

Devi Ever:FX Big Distortion Sound Machine

Enough is Never Enough

Devi Ever:FX Big Distortion Sound Machine Price: $200 (list) Contact: www.devieverfx.com Want fuzz, crunch, and overdrive? How about all at once? The Devi Ever:FX’s Big Distortion Sound Machine is a…

Swart Atomic Jr.

Splitting The Atom

When Swart decided to split their Atomic Jr. five-watt combo into a piggyback, they not only went from an 8″ speaker to a 12″, they added more speaker options, including…

Carl Martin’s Red Repeat Delay Echo, Greg Howe’s Lick Box

Boxes of Rock

After hearing – and taking to heart – feedback from players, Carl Martin recently upgraded its Red Repeat Delay Echo by adding tap tempo and modulation functions. The former allows…

Gigliotti Special

More Than Just Another Classic-Inspired Axe

The Gigliotti Special is a lot more than just another guitar inspired by a classic design. Rather, it’s a unique-looking custom instrument that sounds as good as it looks. Builder…

The Hi-Tone HT30/JP 15

Living Loving Gain

While many have tried via transistor trickery to replicate the tone of Jimmy Page’s Hiwatt at Led Zeppelin’s legendary January ’70 Royal Albert Hall performance, the Hi-Tone HT30/JP 15 is…

Valvetech Amplifier Company’s VAC 25

Tractable Tweed

Who says pragmatic utility and classic tones have to be mutually exclusive? Not Rob Pierce, whose Valvetech Amplifier Company deals in classic tones and enhanced flexibility. Case in point –…

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ToneConcepts’ The Distillery

100-Proof Tone

While many pedal makers tinker away on effects that exhibit their personal tonal philosophies, the fact is that most don’t play gigs or compose music. Seraphim Marcopoulous of ToneConcepts was…

Bacino BAC 18

Tone, With a Big T

Bacino Bac 18 Mike Bacino makes no bones about his mission in recreating the Marshall 18-watt model 1958 2×10″ combo from the mid 1960s. The original amps are rare and…

Skatterbrane Pickups Jazzbranes

Skatterbrane Pickups Jazzbranes

Who Woulda Thunk?

Skatterbrane Pickups Jazzbranes Price: $295 (list) per set Info: www.skatterbranepickups.com. In the mid 1950s, Rickenbacker and Gibson began offering dual-coil, hum-canceling pickups. Jazz was still king, but rock and roll…

JHS Pink Panther

Diamond Delay

To mark the 10th anniversary of its original Pink Panther delay, JHS has created an updated edition that packs a plethora of cool appointments in an attractive box. Modeled after…