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
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,…

Monster of Rock
Bergen Guitars ST and TL Price: $3,999 Info: www.gj2guitars.com. Grover Jackson is a name forever associated with classic metal and custom “superstrats,” thanks to Randy Rhoads and iconic bands like…
Radio King
Schroeder Radio Lane Edge Price: $11,500 Info: www.schroederguitars.com Though Jason Schroeder began to follow his love of instrument-building in 1985, it wasn’t until 2005 that he made the jump to…
The bolt-on Swamp Ash Special has been around for nearly three decades, but PRS just retooled the U.S.-built version and dropped it at NAMM. There are significant upgrades. While earlier versions had humbuckers with a single-coil pickup between them, this latest plank has a PRS Narrowfield (NF) humbucker in the middle. Another bonus is the
If nobody mentioned that Martin’s new Standard line had been updated, a player might be forgiven for not immediately noticing that the latest D-28 has been subtly changed. After all, it’s the D-28 – one of the most recognizable and enduring American icons – and the thought of altering such a flagship is likely to
Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced tonal depths to squeeze a lot more into this diminutive combo. Specs remain much the same, deriving 12 watts of power from a pair of 6V6GT output tubes into a 12″ Celestion A-Type speaker. But,

Return of Cowboy Fancy
The mid ’70s were a time for bold experimentation in guitar design, particularly with electronics. Guitarists were discovering replacement pickups, coil-tapping, onboard boosters, and active EQ circuits; some loaded their…

Twang Banger
As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the theme. But the biggest takeaway from the design’s diamond anniversary…
Texas Tone – And More
Sebago Sound DT50 Price: $1,999 Contact: sebagosound.com The DT50 is the 50-watt version of Sebago Sound’s acclaime d Double Trouble amp line. Its mission? To capture classic Texas tone –…
Maximum Effect
Eventide H9 Price: $499 Info: www.eventide.com. Stompbox evolution is getting to the point where huge libraries of sound are coming out of single pedals. You might say, “Well, those are…
Series
New from Metropolitan Guitars of Texas comes the Westport Series, a scaled-down version of their Tanglewood, reviewed last year in these pages. The Tanglewood is, if you recall, Dave Wintz’s…

Yippee-Ki-Yay
Known for building some of the coolest guitars to roll out of Indiana, Harden Engineering recently expanded its line with a low-gain overdrive pedal called the Rodeo Boost. Bearing the…
Walrus Audio’s Mako Series MKII bolster the sounds of their first-gen predecessors, using altered algorithms, new controls, and better tonal quality. The most-obvious changes are new fine-tune settings and a menu screen. The M1 High-Fidelity Modulation Machine offers Chorus, Phaser, Tremolo, Vibrato, Rotary, and Filters. Running between a Deluxe Reverb a Les Paul Traditional or
LSL Instruments is best known for high-end Leo-style guitar builds, but they’ve also started delving into overdrive pedals. The Lucid OD is their version of a Klon Centaur – one of the priciest stompboxes in human history ($5,000-plus for the first-gen gold box with the horse logo). The box offers Volume, Gain, and Tone knobs
With is Clean compressor, Chase Bliss set out to create a pedal that would duplicate the vivid interactivity of a dirty tube amp, but with a completely clean tone. While a standard compressor can give your guitar (bass, keyboard, etc.) a professional sheen, the Clean is a stereo unit that can polish mixes or deliver
Wait – what? Did Eastwood just bring back the Super Axe, that incredibly rare bird from the late ’70s? Indeed, they did. A Korean-made reissue, it captures the spirit of Gretsch’s chambered curiosity. Grabbing one, the first thing you’ll notice is the oversized yet thin body, with its arched top and the enchanting lines of
So often has the phrase “Mark Sampson era” been applied to pre-2000 Matchless amps or early examples of the Bad Cat line that the term has become a “thing” in and of itself. As applied to Bad Cat’s new Era 30, it means Sampson is back in the fold (see our interview in the March
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 accessible. In fact, a lap steel is about as straightforward as you can get – it’s a plank that sits on your lap and is

Booster Shot
Everyone’s guitar tone sometimes needs a little assistance, especially playing with a band. To the rescue comes the TC Electronic Spark, ready to give you a range – actually, a…

A Nickel For Your Chops
deLisle Nickel Box Price: $609 (list); $729 (as tested) Info: www.delisleguitar.com Low-watt amplifiers have enjoyed a run of popularity. Offering saturated power-tube distortion at volumes that should keep the neighbors…

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…

Icon In Reach
If the iconic Soldano SLO-100 is perpetually on your wish list but its price tag keeps you from pulling the trigger, its creator now has a realistic alternative. Expanding on…

What’s in a Name?
Big Knob Pedals Price: Tube 808, $139; Echo Flex, $149; Vibe Tone, $159; Octavius, $129 (all list) Contact: www.bigknobpedals.com Gary Kibler started making pedals almost by accident. Originally from Los…

Drums Even You Can Play
Everyone knows a good drummer joke. Or two. Drummers are indeed a special breed. Singular Sound’s BeatBuddy drum-machine pedal, however, is no joke. And as the first drum-machine-in-a-pedal designed for…

Double Duty
Michigan-based Mojo Hand Effects has been building a variety of hand-assembled pedals since 2010. Their latest, the Swim Team, pulls double duty as a chorus and flanger packed into a…
Vintage Tone For Modern Players
The original Vox Clyde McCoy wah pedals of the late 1960s are high on the list of soughtafter vintage effects. They were widely used during live performances and on legendary…

Tap, Shred, Dive!
Kramer 84/Pacer Vintage Price: $1,166 (84); $1,267 (Pacer Vintage) Info: kramerguitars.com It’s hard to think of ’80s guitars as vintage, but since all things get older, the guitars of the…

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…

Voices Not In Your Head
In 2014, Fishman introduced their Fluence line with the goal of combining vintage tone with freedom from the inductance problems that impact even the most hallowed vintage pickups. Rather than…

New Traditionalists
Breedlove FF and KO Mandolins1 Price: FF $2,265 (list), $1,699 (street); KO $1,999 (list), $1,499 (street) Info: www.breedlovemusic.com. Unlike luthiers who re-create classic designs, Kim Breedlove prefers new ideas and…
Nice reissue, aging optional
The Gibson Les Paul. Four words. Sixteen letters. Major guitar history. No, it wasn’t the first electric guitar. Nor was it the first solidbody electric. But when the model was…
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…

Shake The Walls
KJ Audio Hanwell 50 Price: Head $1,900; cabinet $1,600 Contact: www.kjaudio.com No apologies: Minneapolis-based amp designer Kristopher Johnson’s Hanwell 50 boutique amp is built to rock. The amp was inspired…

Hybrid Tone
DeTemple Spirit Series Stellacasta Price: $9,000 (list) Info: www.detempleguitars.com As an accomplished musician since the 1960s and more recently as a guitar builder and vintage collector, Michael DeTemple has long…

Brave New Basses
Godin A4/A5 Ultra SA Price: $1,395 (A4 Ultra SA fretted); $1,645 (A5 Ultra SA fretless) Info: godinguitars.com. For years, Godin Guitars has been finding creative ways to improve guitar and…

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…

Desert-Island Jams
Supro’s Comet 1610RT just may be the perfect desert island amp – a high-gain, low-watt 1×10 combo that maybe doesn’t do it all, but does most everything you’ll ever need…

Lowdown And Nasty
Rising from the smoke and flames of the MXR Custom Shop is the pedal of which every fuzz freak dreams. You never know when you’ll need that extra octave, so…
Radio King
Schroeder Radio Lane Edge Price: $11,500 Info: www.schroederguitars.com Though Jason Schroeder began to follow his love of instrument-building in 1985, it wasn’t until 2005 that he made the jump to…