•  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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Boss MT-2 3A Metal Zone

Captain Crunch

Over the years, the Boss Metal Zone has often been lampooned for its ferocious personality. But if you plug one in, you’ll be hard-pressed to understand why – it’s a…

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…

Supro Comet 1610RT

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…

JORDAN BOSS TONE

Jordan Boss Tone

Little Fuzz with the Big Buzz

In the august and revered Hall of Fame of Fuzz, the Jordan Boss Tone deserves a prominent pedestal. Perhaps it should be in a cabinet of cute curiosities. Or maybe…

Rob Allen Mouse 30

30

Many bass players love that cool, jazzy upright bass tone, but don’t want to drag around a big, bulky upright or deal with having to mic it or mess around…

Roland’s Blues Cube Artist

Roland’s Blues Cube Artist

Roland’s Blues Cube Artist Price: $1,169 (list)/$899 (street) Contact: www.rolandus.com Roland has reinvented and relaunched its Blues Cube combos with a series featuring Roland’s exclusive Tube Logic design that carefully…

Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Model

Tuna Bass

Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass Price: $699 (street) Info: www.epiphone.com. Rock-and-roll bassists of the ’60s like Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, and Duck Dunn brought something to the game…

Godin ACS SA

Nylon Dreams

Too often, the notion of plugging in a thin-body guitar and getting a reasonably natural acoustic/electric tone is more dream than reality. With decades of experience, Godin is taking on…

Prestige Guitars DC Coupe Custom T Hybrid

“Tele” Twist

The first Telecasters were so good that today they’re made almost exactly as they were 70 years ago. Working just as well for rock as they do for country and…

Fender American Standard Strat

The American Standard Strat might just be one of the best bargains on the used guitar market. You can find used U.S. Standards for $450 to $550 all day long.…

Budda’s Baby Budda Amp Head

Big-Boy Tone

Budda Amplification staked its claim in 1995 with the Twinmaster boutique amplifier. Its hand-wired construction and user-friendly tones were hits in the guitar community and led to a broader line…

Peavey Vypyr VIP2

Backline in a Box

Peavey Vypyr VIP2 Price: $199.99 Contact: www.peavey.com For more than 40 years Peavey’s ongoing evolution while building guitars, amps, and pro audio equipment has attracted some big names in the…

Crucial Audio DUB-1

Lesson Learned

It’s not uncommon for novice guitarists to seek out stompboxes with zillions of features. As guitarists mature, however, they learn to chase something more important – sounding good. Crucial Audio’s…

Railhammer’s Nuevo 90 Humcutter Set

Joe Naylor has a long history of designing and marketing everything in the music business from high-end amps, guitars, basses, speakers, and effects pedals to his latest Railhammer pickups. His…

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…

Fender Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster

Good Times

Guitarists know Nile Rodgers as funkmaster general of Chic, but he looms even larger as a Grammy-winning producer whose skill has helped sell more than 500 million albums. Fender’s Artist…

Orangewood Guitars’ Echo 12 Live

Fresh-Squeezed Jangle

Twelve-string sales ebb and flow in part with the popularity of a song featuring one. Orangewood Guitars aims to change such fickle trends with an affordable 12 that plays and…

Marchione Guitars’ 16″ Archtop

The Golden Mean

In 1922, Gibson introduced Lloyd Loar’s L-5, lauded as the first modern archtop. Luthiers have been “advancing” the design ever since.  Marchione Guitars’ 16″ Archtop shows how the violin family…

Rahbek Standard

A fine custom guitar, Danish-style

Rahbek Guitars hail from Copenhagen, Denmark, hotbed of electric guitar production. Huh? Okay, so that ain’t the case. But those who would rush to judgment over the thought of buying…

Washburn’s Warren Haynes Signature Acoustic

New “Pre-War” Picker

Washburn’s Warren Haynes Signature Acoustic Price: $1,899 (Dream Solo 1 combo); $3,995 (Dream Solo 4 head); $699 (Switchback 112) Info: www.washburn.com Given the company’s long history, it’s surprising that Washburn…

Breedlove Organic Performer Pro Concert Aged Toner CE

Natural Beauty

With climate change on the minds of so many, guitar builders have started to offer more instruments that are good tone tools and sustainable for the planet. Breedlove’s Organic series…

Carvin Steve Vai Legacy 3 VL300

The Legend Continues

Carvin Steve Vai Legacy 3 VL300 Price: $899 Info: www.carvin.com. For more than 13 years, Steve Vai has been collaborating with Carvin on a signature amp line, and their third-generation…

DNA Analogic Effects

Chemical Reaction

If you‘re a “first impressions mean a lot” kind of gearhead, DNA Analogic’s line of effects pedals may just win your heart the instant you crack open the box(es). Housed…

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Bohemian Boho Moonshine

In The Can

Here at VG, we see all manner of guitars – those made out of steel, graphite, even animal shells. But I’d never seen a guitar with a body made of…

The Clark Gainster

Trick Your Tweed

Before he got into the effects pedal biz, Michael Clark had a reputation for building killer tweed-inspired amps. In 2001 he utilized his tonal superpowers to devise the first version…

The EHX Super Pulsar

Superstar Trem

The new Electro-Harmonix Super Pulsar may not be the most tremolo for your buck, but then again, it’s tough to think of any unit anywhere at any time that gives…

Bad Cat Cub V EL34 Amp

First-Class Blast

The Bad Cat Cub has evolved through several iterations since arriving with the maker’s inaugural lineup 25 years ago. It has gained (and lost) features, morphed into more-affordable PCB-based versions,…

ESP GL-56

Is it Really Vintage?

Like the “aged” guitars crafted by Fender and Gibson, this ESP solidbody looks like an ancient road warrior, one that’s gigged from Texas to Tijuana and back again, 200 nights…

Hall & Collins Signature Echo

Echo Rock

For guitarists whose lives are dedicated to replicating the echo effects heard on songs like Hank Marvin’s “Apache,” Hall & Collins Signature Echo is at their service. Combining analog and…

Pigtail Music

Pigtail music makes ABR-style and wraparound bridges (in the U.S.) with vintage-style appearance and materials, but to tighter tolerances. Their bridges hold saddles in place by friction (not with a…