•  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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Xotic Guitar XSS-1 Super S Style

Tribute To The King

Xotic’s S-style guitar line pays homage to the man who revolutionized rock guitar in the ’80s. Hint: He was hot for teacher. The latest version is the XSS-1 Super S,…

Death By Audio’s Deep Animation

The Other Side

If you thought envelope filters died out after Jerry Garcia passed into the great beyond, think again. Submitted as proof – the Death By Audio Deep Animation. Tested with a…

Zinky True Grit Pedal

Tone charismatic enough to thrill the Duke

Yeah, we know! You’re thinking, “Wha? Another overdrive pedal?” It seems that one thing guitar players will forever be in search of is the ultimate dirty tone, and few players…

Reverend Hellhound 40/60

One step to "schizo"

Reverend Musical Instru ments founder Joe Naylor’s head is always cranking out cool ideas. A Roberto-Venn graduate who in 1996 sold his amplifier company so he could start building guitars,…

AXL USA Hand-Aged Bulldog

Bark and Bite

AXL USA Hand-Aged Bulldog Price: $699.99 (street) Contact: www.axlguitars.com Unabashedly inspired by the classic Les Paul Junior, AXL Guitars’ limited-edition USA Hand-Aged Bulldog is a single-pickup guitar with a slab…

The Yamaha THR10

Yamaha THR10

Practice Perfection?

Yamaha THR10 Price: $299 Contact: usa.yamaha.com. As a rule of thumb, practice amps are a compromise. Blissfully portable, they typically lack tone and features. Yet whether in a bedroom or…

Parker Guitars P8E and P8E

Fresh designs from radical axe maker

A Parker acoustic? And a cyber-age single-cutaway? Yes, folks, it’s the 21st century, and the Parker guitar company is responding with new designs for a new era. Of the two,…

Brimstone Audio Crossover Distortion XD-1

Bi-Amping in a Box

Brimstone Audio Crossover Distortion XD-1 Price: $299.95 Info: www.Brimstoneaudio.com. Brimstone Audio is a relatively new company that hit the ground running, entering the stomp-box arena with some innovative ideas that…

Vox MV50 AC

The Little Amp That Could

Ready to step onstage but your amp won’t sing? Traveling, but don’t want to lug a lot of gear? Need a backup for a gig or session? Got a tiny…

Bassics BPA-1

Defined Tone

Low-end tone is a critical component of a live mix or studio recording – if the bass doesn’t sound good, the music will suffer. Badly. The Bassics BPA-1, designed by…

Fender’s Duel Pugilist Distortion & Dual Marine Layer Reverb

Double Trouble

Fender launched its Pugilist Distortion and Marine Layer Reverb in 2018, after VP of Innovation Stan Cotey – who’d previously helped design signature amps with Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, and…

Danelectro ’66

Alluring Curves

The new Danelectro ’66 brings together several threads of retro-dom in one hip package. Visually, this Danny brings to mind the Mosrite Ventures models, with its reverse offset, double-cutaway design…

Mooer’s Slow Engine Volume Swell

Bring It Up

Long out of production, the Boss Slow Gear was one of the coolest pedals of the ’80s, duplicating the sound of a volume swell without putting your pinky to work.…

Vintage V52 Icon

Vintage V52 Icon

Cost-Effective Twang

Vintage V52 Icon Price: $459 Info: www.jhs.co.uk The U.K.-based distributor John Hornby Skewes offers guitars under the brand Vintage that cater to a market interested in traditional sounds and old-school…

Kiesel JB5 Classic

The look and feel of Kiesel’s JB5 Classic align well with what a bassist expects when they gaze upon it – modern take on a Fender Jazz, with similar cuts…

Weller Guitars’ Stageliner

Jetson Moderne

More and more, guitar designers are digging deep, thinking out of the box, and using their imaginations to conjure hip, nontraditional designs. Strat, Tele, and Les Paul shapes are no…

Dean HardTail Collector’s Edition

Grace and Nuance

If you were part of the scene in the late 1970s, you may recall how two companies – Hamer and Dean – at the time carried the torch for players…

PRS Modern Eagle and SE Soapbar II

From "10" Top To Bottom

Gee, I have to review two Paul Reed Smith guitars today… I know – it’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Today’s subjects are the top-end, USA-made Modern…

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John Page Classic Ashburn

Turn the Page

With the creation of John Page Classic Guitars in 2006, the guitar builder, designer, and co-founder of the Fender Custom Shop opened a new chapter in his already illustrious career.…

Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner

Easy on, easy off, UV protection

Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner Easy on, easy off, UV protection Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner, prominent features at vintage guitar shows a few years ago, were recently reintroduced after a not-so-brief…

Peterson VS-1 Tuner

The accurate, real-time tuner goes mobile

Most guitar techs will tell you that there has always been a void between small battery-powered tuners and full-blown rotating disc strobe tuners; the small ones are not all that…

EHX Spruce Goose OD

Blues-breakers Bump

Known and loved for its smooth breakup and sensitivity, Marshall’s Bluesbreaker circuit is a legend unto itself. The Spruce Goose Overdrive is the Electro-Harmonix version of it. Offering a simple…

A.R.T. Tube Channel

A.R.T. Tube Channel

Picking through signal processors was worse than looking at distortion boxes – wide variation in features, but all aimed at (more or less) warming up the signal (especially vocals), offering…

Roland V-Studio 20

The Roland V-Studio 20

Roland V-Studio 20 Price: $300 (street) Info: www.rolandus.com. Home digital recording has come a long way in the last 20 years, to the point where top bands are cutting full…

The Eastman SB55

Little Devil

When re-creating a classic, it’s all too easy to feel hidebound to the original – especially if it’s an icon. In launching its first single-pickup solidbody, Eastman felt few restrictions…

Relic Guitars The Hague T-Style

Relic Guitars The Hague T-Style

Aged to Perfection

Relic Guitars The Hague is a Dutch builder that produces, obviously, relic’d guitars. Mostly using the archetypal Strat and Tele shapes, the company sells their axes online and often for…

Quilter Labs’ Aviator Cub

High Flyer

Quilter Labs has gained a rep for busting popular perceptions. They’ve attempted to step up their game with this single-channel combo voiced to deliver classic Fender tones – in a…

PRS SE NF3

Expanded Options

The latest result of PRS Guitars “reverse-engineering”/ reconsidering its own instruments, the SE NF3 is the first PRS to be given Narrowfield DD (Deep Dish) S pickups. A spin on…

Brown Guitar Factory Chambered Electric

Beast Mode

To use a slightly skewed metaphor, John Brown builds guitars to the beat of a different drummer. After all, who wants a custom builder without vision, churning out yet another…

Orange Dual Baby, Gain Baby, and Tour Baby 100

Playpen Power

For 2025, Orange has expanded on its compact Pedal Baby introduced a few years back with a new trio – the Dual Baby, Gain Baby, and Tour Baby. All 100-watt…