•  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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Jam Pedals’ LucyDreamer Supreme

Crunchilicious

Like so many boutique gear companies, Jam Pedals has established a distinct sonic stamp. Its effects have an uncompromising retro personality known for warmth and quality. One of their latest,…

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Larry Alan Guitars’ The Harlot

Siren Song

Hot idea: pack a sturdy-yet-petite 1590B casing with specially selected parts rendering a powerful, variable guitar overdrive, add a couple of vintage-look knobs, a titillating pinup-girl graphic, and call it…

So-Cal Steel

Asher Guitars & Lap Steels Ben Harper Signature Model

If Nashville is the pedal-steel capital, surely Southern California is a lap steel hotspot. David Lindley and Ben Harper, along with luthier Bill Asher, have taken what some consider an…

The KW Cabs ST-220T SSB

Who Woodn’t?

Like you, Kurt Wyberanec knows that good extension cabinets, like acoustic guitars, serve their player as resonant sound chambers. Those he builds go the extra mile with artful design, sturdy…

Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter

Tremolo Transformed

Tremolo is a simple effect: the amplitude, or volume, of an incoming signal is raised and lowered in pulsating waves. With the Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter, the player is invited…

Xaviere XV-950

Jazzy Looks, Multi-Purpose

Gibsonguildgretsch! Cumbersome as it may be in word form, Xaviere’s XV-950 gracefully combines attributes from the “big trio.” The XV-950 employs a classic Florentine cutaway body measuring a small-ish 15″…

Victoria Sovereign

Royal Blood

Tubeheads the world over are well-acquainted with the story of Jim Marshall lifting the Fender Bassman circuit in 1962 to create his venerable JTM45. To the uninitiated, “similar circuit” means…

Warm Audio Centavo

Not Just Another Klon(E)

Most pedal enthusiasts consider a vintage Klon Centaur the pinnacle of overdrive boxes. With originals now approaching $10,000, it makes sense that Warm Audio has created a cost-effective reproduction with…

Andrews Spectraverb 16

No Limits

Taking inspiration from Fender’s classic AB763 Deluxe Reverb, the hand-wired Andrews Spectraverb 16 uses a pair of JJ 6V6 power tubes (producing 16 watts), a GZ34 rectifier, two 12AX7 and…

ToadWorks Lil’ Leo and John Bull

OD, Spiced to Your Liking

Washington-based ToadWorks USA was founded by Ryan Dunn and Doug Harrison in 2001. They recently asked if we’d be hip to checking out their Lil’ Leo and John Bull units.…

LsL Instruments’ Soledad

T-Bone with a Side of Sustain

Based out of Santa Clarita, California, LsL Instruments was founded by Lance and Lisa Lerman in 2008 after many years in the furniture-manufacturing business as well as guitar building. Today,…

Amptweaker’s FatMetal Distortion

Amptweaker’s FatMetal Distortion

Metal To the Pedal

With all of the subgenres of heavy metal out there, it was only a matter of time before the pedal industry began tweaking its many circuits to meet the needs…

Magic Magnets

TV Jones’ Starwood Humbuckers

Best known for making the vintage-sounding Magna’Tron, Power’Tron, and Supra’Tron pickups, TV Jones has expanded its well-regarded line to include pickups for Telecasters, Stratocasters, and Les Pauls. The TV Jones…

Keeley Electronics Dark Side

Floyd Fare

In the multi-verse of effects pedals, Robert Keeley’s compressors, dirt boxes, and workstation gizmos are a thing of beauty – particularly in the realm of pedals that provide multiple sounds.…

Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo

Tone to the Third Squared

The Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo Price: $491.84 list (Epitome) and $292.35 list (Tone Tattoo) Info: www.ehx.com The concept is smart yet so obvious it’s a wonder no one came up…

Line 6 DM4, DL4, and MM4

Line 6 Modeling Pedals

In an addendum to its well-known line of guitar and bass PODs, combo amps, and amp/cab stacks, the Line 6 company recently launched four stompbox-style effects units. All share features…

Kochel Resonator

Big-Sky Steel

Self-taught guitar builder Sean Kochel has always been a compulsive tinkerer, even as a child. Years ago, he and his father side-hustled by dismantling homesteader farmhouses, barns, commercial buildings, schools,…

McElroy OM Model

OM, Gee!

McElroy OM Model Price: $7,500 (base; $8,500 as reviewed) Info: www.mcelroyguitars.com. Brent McElroy is a Seattle luthier specializing in high-quality acoustics. One of them, the OM Model from his Generation…

Universal Audio’s OX Amp Top Box

The Tube Abides

Since the mid ’60s, electrical engineers have been trying to drive a stake into the heart of the vacuum tube, first with transistors, then with zeros and ones. Yet the…

Way Cool Version: Newman Guitars’ Honeycomb Chambered Jr.

Following Ted Newman Jones’ passing in 2016, protégé Jeff Smith took over Newman Guitars and is furthering the vision, using the same offset body as Jones’ original guitars but  employing…

Eastwood EEB-1 and EUB-1

Horizontal Vibe

Eastwood’s EEB-1 and the EUB-1 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…

Supercool “800,” The Thneed, and ’77 Fuzz Blender

Hip Sounds

Supercool Pedals is a Canadian company that makes stompboxes that sound hip and look seriously groovy. Among its offerings is the “800” Preamp/Distortion, which harkens back to ’70s mid-overdrive designs…

Fishman Fluence Single-Width Pickup

Fishman Fluence Single-Width Pickup

Hum-Free, Cutting-Edge

Fishman Fluence Single-Width Pickup Price: $224 (set) Contact: www.fishman.com Larry Fishman is one of the most respected names in the world of acoustic-guitar pickups and the tone-shaping devices necessary to…

Eastwood La Baye 2x4 Devo Signature Model

Eastwood La Baye 2×4 Devo Signature Model

Whip It Good

For decades, guitarists have lovingly referred to their solidbody guitars as “planks.” In the mid ’60s, a small builder called LaBaye upped the ante by offering a guitar truly was…

Eastman AR905SCE Uptown Deluxe

Classy Jazz Box

Eastman AR905SCE Uptown Deluxe Price: $3,650 retail Contact: www.eastmanguitars.com Over the past few years the negative stigma attached to guitars manufactured overseas has been altered greatly. Many builders from abroad…

Bad Cat Hot Cat

New Roar in Ampland

With a name like Bad Cat and a product pedigree that includes Matchless, our expectations for this new amp line were quite high. So it was with some anxiety that…

Taylor Classic, Custom, and Standard

Worth the Wait

Taylor SolidBody Classic. For years, Bob Taylor fended off the question, “When are you going to build a solidbody guitar?” Well-known as a builder of top-notch acoustics, for his company,…

Category 5 Samantha

Hook, Line, and Tone

Blues-rocker Samantha Fish (VG, December ’21) electrifies audiences with her high-energy shows. A decade ago, she began favoring Category 5’s 50-watt/cathode-biased Andrew amp onstage. In 2021, she and builder Don…

KR Musical Purple Pedals

Jimi Would Love 'Em!

Efects builder Kevin Randall has done his homework on what makes vintage pedals sound the way they do. But most guys who build pedals do that… right? And we all…

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Evil Robot EVR-C30

Advances in Mojo

Evil Robot EVR-C30 Price: $999 (list) Info: www.frettedamericana.com. In 2010, music retailer Fretted Americana joined forces with amp wizard John Kasha to “reimagine” the tonal qualities of a vintage Magnatone…