•  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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PRS Swamp Ash Special SE

Bolt-On Beauty

Known historically for its set-neck guitars, PRS has produced a number of killer bolt-ons, like the CE and Silver Sky. A new version of its Swamp Ash Special is another.…

Breedlove C25 and Custom XII

Beauty, brains, and brawn

Breedlove Guitar Company is a small, independent gui-tar and mandolin builder in Oregon’s high desert region east of the Cascade Mountains. Started in 1990 by Steve Henderson and Larry Breedlove,…

Lapdancer Steel

Art that carries at tune

Hearing we were set to receive lapsteel to review, we thought “Finally, something we’re qualified to review!” Then the Lapdancer arrived in its huge case, and we thought, “It’s a…

Jam Pedals RetroVibe

Bridge Of Floyd

In a civilized world, every guitarist would have a bit of Robin Trower, Pink Floyd, and Band Of Gypsys shimmer in their musical vocabulary. Fitting, then, that a company headquartered…

Budda Verbmaster 112 Home

Budda Verbmaster 112

Versatile 18-Watter

Budda Verbmaster 112 Price: $1,800 (street) Contact: budda.com As part of its Hand-Wired series, Budda has reissued the tube-rectified Verbmaster 1×12 combo that differs from similarly powered amps because it’s…

The Selmer Zodiac 50

The Zodiac Twin Fifty

An amp maker at the very heart of the British guitar boom of the late ’50s and early ’60s, Selmer was, for a time, the leader in the field, though…

Billionaire by Danelectro Big Spender

Rotary Club

In this day and age, there’s a lot of spin going down, but perhaps not enough of the right type. Enter the new Billionaire line of affordable effects from Danelectro,…

Rockn’ Stompn RS-4

Order!

Powering up your favorite rig in the wrong order can lead to, at minimum, a loud pop through your valued speaker. Rockn Stompn solves that problem with the RS-4; a…

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123 is made of 1/8″ aluminum with overlapping surfaces that can be adjusted from 13″ to 30″ at 1.5″ increments using one or both panels and…

Fuchs Overdrive Supreme

Amazing craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal, top-notch

Andy Fuchs, a tube audio product builder from Bloomfield, New Jersey, recently sent us one of his Overdrive Supreme amp heads. Cased in a finger-jointed pine cabinet with tolex covering,…

RainSong WS 1000

No wood in sight, but your ears won't know it

RainSong is a Hawaii-based company (in the process of moving to the mainland) that has been building its unique graphite/epoxy instruments since 1995, and earning a huge reputation for its…

Tunerette

Smokin’ Tuner

The guitar world has many options to stay in tune but none as cool-looking as the Tunerette. Don’t let the cigarette shape fool you – the Tunerette is a real,…

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…

Roland Cube Lite

Roland Cube Lite

High-Calorie Tone

Roland Cube Lite Price: $169 (street) Info: www.rolandus.com. At just under four pounds, and with a 10″ x 6″ footprint, the Roland Cube Lite is about as compact and lightweight…

Teye Guitars Gypsy Queen

Teye Guitars Gypsy Queen

The Art of Tone

For Austin-based Teye Guitars, taking guitar construction to new artistic heights has been a basic tenet since their inception. Mastermind luthier Teye Wijnterp, an accomplished guitarist, forged his concept of…

Electro-Harmonix Nano Series LPB-1 and Soul Preacher

Smaller Boxes, Same Big Sounds

Electro-Harmonix Nano Series LPB-1 Renowned guitar-effects builder Electro-Harmonix recently introduced a handful of its most popular pedals, along with a couple of more modern options in its new Nano Series…

Retro and Wonderful

The EHX Mainframe Bit Crusher

The Mainframe Bit Crusher is a nasty little pedal that warps, mangles, distorts and produces lo-fi digital sounds and trippy sci-fi gizmo textures reminiscent of computers and video games of…

Eastwood MRG Lap Steel

Slide Piece

Now more than 90 years old, the lap steel was the earliest example of an electric guitar and remains a stringed instrument every guitarist should try, largely because it’s so…

Carvin VL212 Legacy Combo

Hotrodded Marshall, glimpse of gussied-up Fender

Carvin’s Legacy series amplifiers were designed exclusively for fretboard wizard Steve Vai – un-questionably one of the best players around is Vai well-known for his keen ear, incredible technique, and…

Breedlove’s Jeff Bridges

The Wood Abides

Sustainably sourced guitars – those constructed with wood harvested from managed land rather than the wilds – are often on the pricey side. Breedlove has worked with actor/musician Jeff Bridges…

Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust, Splash MKII, and Pin Up Fuzz

Pure Sanity

Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust, Splash MKII, and Pin Up Fuzz Price: $290 (splash MKll); $260 (Pin Up Fuzz); $235 (Stardust) Contact: www.crazytubecircuits.com Athens, Greece – birthplace of the Olympics, democracy,…

Electro-Harmonix Tube Zipper

Exotic Tones For Eclectic Players

Hailed by its creators as the greaest product introduced by Electro-Harmonix in over 20 years, the new Tube Zipper was developed jointly by E-H’s legendary stompbox guru, Mike Matthews, and…

Legendary Tones Time Machine Boost

Built like a tank, but sings like a bird…

To call Legendary Tones’ Time Machine Boost “…a distortion pedal” would be to sell it extremely short. Designed for use with high-quality tube amps, the Time Machine’s purpose is to…

Donner LAX Comp

To The Limit

Whether used for funky tones, a gentle sonic sheen, or as gatekeeper for your rig’s volume, compressors are handy – and often misunderstood – pieces of gear. Fortunately, Donner’s affordable…

Kay’s K161 Thin Twin

Post-war Blues Box

In his day, Jimmy Reed was a huge influence on everyone from Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield to the Rolling Stones and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Among its reissues, Kay Guitar…

The Logan Telemaster

Masterful Mashup

Though Bob Logan has been building guitars since 1972, he worked in construction for a few decades before fully dedicating himself to custom builds. Today, he specializes in models like…

Siegmund Midnight Special

Siegmund Midnight Special

Tried ’N True, Twisted

Siegmund Midnight Special Price: $1,895 (list, as tested) Contact: www.siegmundguitars.com Driven by a quest for preserving the original tonal qualities of a player’s instrument, builder Chris Siegmund created the Midnight…

Vox Giulietta VGA-3D

Unconventional Archtop

It may look like a conventional archtop, but Vox’s latest box offers something truly different. Within the Giulietta VGA-3D is a modeling engine that can conjure tones from humbucker and…

Hipshot Products

Bass Extenders, Stealth Slide, and B Bender

What do Will Lee, Leland Sklar, and Bunny Brunel all have in common? Besides being bassists, they all use Hipshot Bass Extender keys, a nifty device that drops the E…

E.W.S. BMC2

E.W.S. BMC2

Tiny Green Giant

As mini-sized pedals continue to gain in popularity they are also becoming increasingly refined and versatile in their layouts. One of these, the popular BMC (Bass Mid Control) from E.W.S…