•  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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JHS Charlie Brown Overdrive

Beautiful Noise

While few guitarists get the opportunity to plug into every vintage Marshall amp and hear their distinguishing tonal characteristics, most know a good crunchy stompbox when they hear it. The…

Music Nomad Precision Setup Gauge Set

The Set Up

There’s nothing like playing a properly set-up guitar, but taking it to a repair shop can be expensive – especially if you regularly play more than one instrument. With proper…

The Rivolta Combinata Bass VII

Euro Flash

Rivolta’s Combinata VII bass takes ideas from Rickenbacker, Höfner, and various European builders lost to history and wraps them into a four-string with a chambered mahogany body. Working in collaboration…

Nocturne Dyno Brain Booster

Smart Boost

In the not-so-distant past, guitarists learned that those great tape-echo units of the 1960s and ’70s not only added echo, but their preamps boosted signal, and in turn sweetened tone.…

Fano Alt de Facto RB6

Classic That Never Was

Fano Alt de Facto RB6 Price: $2,495 Info: fanoguitars.com In recent years, a trend in the guitar realm has been to re-create the magic of vintage-style instruments. This has ranged…

Keeley Noble Screamerb

Ultimate Mash-Up

Just when guitarists thought the golden age of gear couldn’t get better, Robert Keeley has combined two great pedals that sound great together. One side of his new Noble Screamer…

Linc Luthier Impression

Sculpture With Strings

Sure, it’s great to pick up a vintage Strat or Les Paul and marvel at its aged patina. It’s also a wonderful feeling to pick up a customized, totally handcrafted…

ESPVIPER-HOME-MAIN-BIG

ESP LTD Viper 256P

Metal Cruncher

ESP LTD Viper 256P Price: $399 (street) Info: espguitars.com. In the protoplasmic days of heavy metal, Tony Iommi slashed away at classics like “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” with a…

Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus 50th Anniversary

Mr. Clean

The Roland Corporation was born in 1972 and just a few years later introduced its landmark Jazz Chorus JC-120 amplifier. To celebrate the half-century mark, the company has reissued a…

The Pettyjohn Crush Compressor

Big Squeeze

Compressors can be a real mystery to guitarists who don’t understand the concept. Recording engineers bandy about words like “hard-knee” and “soft-knee” compression, “ratio,” “threshold,” and “transparency”; these are not…

Martin D-18 Satin

Spruce Stalwart

Death, taxes, and spruce on mahogany. There are only so many certainties in life, and these are three. Another is that there will always be spruce-on-mahogany Martin guitars. The newest…

Six-String Kicks

Six-String Kicks

Wood from Famed Bowling Alley Set to Sing

Few things scratch America’s cumulative itch for nostalgia like Route 66 – the famed wagon-trail-cum-highway that offered passage to those migrating west from Chicago in the mid 19th century, then…

Magnets and Magic The PAF – Yesterday, Today

Magnets and Magic

The PAF – Yesterday, Today

When it came to launching a solidbody electric guitar, Fender beat Gibson to the punch with its Broadcaster model in 1950. Big G, though, had a cross to counter the…

Fender Acoustic Pro and Acoustic SFX

Curved Air

Fender has been making acoustic guitar amps for decades – now they’re reinventing the genre, and their designers deserve a round of applause both for the visual makeover and the…

Epiphone Joe Bonamassa “Treasure” Firebird I

Sweet Bird

One thing fans like most about Joe Bonamassa is that, in addition to his bluesy chops, he’s a guitar nut like us. His collection is renowned, and within his hoard…

Donner Arena 2000

Earthy Vibes

Donner has been making a name delivering import gear at absurdly low prices while maintaining solid quality. The Arena 2000 is another triumph, this one going up against multi-effects floor…

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…

Walrus The Melee

Super Soaker

Just when you think you’ve seen everything, along comes Walrus’ The Melee: Wall of Noise, a pedal with a built-in joystick, perfect for guitarists raised on video games. Billed as…

Larrivée D-03E

High marks in the "bang for the buck" category

Not all great values are old instru-ments. For you newcomers, in this column we focus on musi-cal gear that presents extraordinary “bang for the buck.” This month’s entree, the Larrivée…

Vox’s AC10C1

Vox’s AC10C1

Blast of the Past

Few amps give such an instant jolt of history as a Vox. The golden nameplate, that distinctive crisscross speaker fabric, that black or fawn Vynide basket-weave covering, that tone –…

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…

The Vox AC30C2X and AC15C1

Brit-Rock Mojo in a Box

Fully appointed in classic Vox dress, the famed British amp maker’s new AC30C2X and AC15C1 both sport enough of that beloved AC30 look to make most any player yearn for…

Blueridge BR140

Time to Sell the D-28?

Usually, I don’t give Chinese-made acoustic guitars a second glance. But when I saw that the Blueridge BR140 was made of all solid woods and retailed for $650, my interest…

Dr Z Z-28 MK II 1×12

Step On It!

If you’ve driven a classic muscle car like the Camaro Z28, you know that when you step on the gas, you’re in for a thrill. In the same spirit, the…

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…

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 –…

Maestro Ranger Overdrive and Invader Distortion

Evil Twins

Maestro’s new all-analog overdrive and distortion pedals are like evil twins – two black-sheep siblings that differ in concept but work great together. Part of Maestro’s new Original Collection –…

B&G Little Sister Private Build

Doncha Go And Do…

B&G Guitars just about do it all – from mixing their own nitro finishes to winding pickups and even casting their own brass hardware. Their goal? To re-create the feeling…

Alembic Essence Zebrawood 4

Alembic basses are the stuff of low-end legend, famed for magical tones in the hands of Stanley Clarke, Jack Casady, and John McVie, among others. The newer Essence 4 series…

GIFFIN VITKA

Giffin Vikta

Feelin’ Special

Giffin Vikta Price: $2,295 Contact: premierbuildersguild.com. Roger Giffin is a guitarmaker to the stars, having built for Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, Mark Knopfler, Andy Summers, David Gilmour,…