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…

Parlor for Pennies
In recent years, the parlor guitar has exploded into popularity, reviving a 19th century instrument that was, as its name implies, played in the parlor – the small room used…

Ugly, But An Oldy
In the March issue, I introduced you to my apprentice, Blake Burkholder, and the restoration he was doing to a ’56 Duo-Jet. Blake, who operates Peach Ridge Guitars, in West…
Secret Weapons
Goodtone Roadrage PD, Mad Professor Golden Cello Price: $155 Info: www.goodtone.com. Goodtone Amps builder Norm Matthews has a rep for building noteable guitar amps, and more recently he delved into…
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…

Swank Plank
Some guitars look great, while others sound or play great. With Reverends’ Rick Vito Soul Agent, you get all three in one package. With a chambered korina (white limba) body…
Purrdy bird with loads of chirp
Kendrick Amplifiers recently added a new variation of its Continetal guitar, their line’s Les Paul-inspired guitar. Dubbed the Canary, it’s monikered after the wood used to make its top. We…
Now It's a Champ!
Fender’s tiny Champion 600 is aimed at the guitarist who requires rich power-tube distortion at low volume levels. With just one 6V6 power tube putting out five watts, getting the…
Pedals For All Occasions!
The Carl Martin Contour & Boost is a hybrid EQ pedal with two filters, a high pass, and a low pass crossed over at 440 hz. The company says it…

Boom Box
Martin’s new Modern Deluxe line offers a tantalizing idea – a traditional-looking/playing premium acoustic, but with high-tech innovations under the hood. Being a revised take on an iconic dreadnought, it…

Radio King
Matt Richards builds basic cathode-bias amps housed in the carcasses of vintage radios. They’re designed to be compatible with various tubes, giving the user a range of output and tone…
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…
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 the original single-channel SLO Overdrive pedal, the SLO Plus introduces a Normal channel alongside Overdrive, each with dedicated controls that allow for detailed tweaking of…
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 amps with solid-state Class A/B output stages, Jfet preamp stages (another form of solid-state), and two footswitchable channels, they’re housed in 12″ x 3.25″ x…
Based on the famed Roland SDE-3000 rack unit, Boss’ SDE-3 combines some classic delay sounds of the 1980s, updated with a bevy of modern tricks and features. Like a lot of delays, it can be run in mono, but you’ll get the biggest bang going in stereo to different amps or outputs. The core of…
The evolution of Randall Smith’s legendary high-gain Mesa/Boogie design into the revered Mark IIC+ of the mid ’80s established a rock amp that many guitarists still consider the epitome of the form. Building on what was already a high-gain amp by the standards of the day, the M/B team piled on even more gain, more…

Cool Player, Punk Heart
Few punk-rock guitarists have made their mark like Tim Armstrong. Through his work with renowned punkers Rancid, Armstrong has torn it up on stages worldwide, and key to his presence…

Tiny Tools
The shrinkologists at Fishman recently introduced a line of mini AFX pedals that do many jobs in an acoustic/electric guitar while offering a minimal footprint, 9-volt power, and optional true-bypass.…

Tone Poet
If you’ve seen guitar wizard Mark Lettieri (VG, November ’22) at work, you know how expressive he is. Whether laying down deep funk rhythms with Snarky Puppy or whipping out…

Weather-Ready
Composite and graphite guitars have been around for more than 50 years, from famous Ovation acoustics to the Parker Fly, Steinberger, Brian Moore MC/1, and RainSong acoustics. The China-based Donner…

Ageless Anchor
It wasn’t literally the first electric bass, but Fender’s Precision was the genesis of the instrument the world knows today. For more than seven decades, the four-string workhorse has been…

Big Step
The Boss Katana amplifier has a cult of devotees, many of whom have been waiting for a Bluetooth version that allows access to the amp’s deep models and effects with…

Fuzzy Beast
Zachary Vex masterminds some of the most radical and downright fun pedals known to mankind. And as he states in the user’s manual to the Woolly Mammoth 7, “Because why…

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…

Always On
When Electro-Harmonix heard that guitarist J Mascis’ prized Deluxe Big Muff Pi was stolen years ago, they decided to make things right. The Big Muff is crucial to the sounds…
Secure, sturdy, and stylish
We’ve checked out (and recommended) El Dorado straps before, but that was many years (and new readers) ago, so the time has come again, especially since the company recently released…

Post-war Blues Box
In his day, Jimmy Reed was a huge influence on everyone from Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield to the Rolling Stones and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Among its reissues, Kay Guitar…

A Quiet Place
With the miracle of micro-electronics, you can pack a massive amount of tone into a tight space. Case in point: Fishman’s Fluence Gristle-Tone P90, designed in collaboration with guitar maven…

In the Deep End
Ibanez RGA-8 Price: $1,102.21 (approx. $800 street). Info: ibanez.com In the annals of cool, weird, and unusual guitars, they’re nothing like an eight-string axe. It’s a strange beastie, sporting a…

Grand Designs
PRS Alex Lifeson Signature Price: $8,999 (list) Contact: www.prsguitars.com What do you call the most beautifully made production acoustic you’ve ever seen? You might consider calling it the Paul Reed…
Built like a tank, but sings like a bird…
To call Legendary Tones’ Time Machine Boost “…a distortion pedal” would be to sell it extremely short. Designed for use with high-quality tube amps, the Time Machine’s purpose is to…
Tonal Crossover
If you’ve paid attention to these pages in recent years, you’re familiar with Mike Robinson’s Eastwood retro-styled electric guitars, which, along with the company’s proprietary instruments, have become ever-more popular…

Czech Mate
You might not recogonize the Furch brand, but the Czech Republic builder has spent that last 40-plus years gaining a reputation for building high-quality acoustic guitars. One of the company’s…

Ladies’ First
With a quick glance and a dash of judginess, Fender’s Blu DeTiger x Player Plus Jazz Bass looks like what you’d expect when a Gen Z TikTok influencer storms the…

Tonewood Tales
When hunting for a new acoustic, it’s useful to learn about tonewoods and construction, as both play a huge role in how an instrument sounds. With Taylor’s Grand Symphony body…

Gotta Rock
Some elemental solidbodies were born to rock – the SG, Telecaster, and Les Paul Special and Junior come to mind. Born in the late ’50s, Epiphone’s Coronet and Wilshire were…

Soul in the Details
Occasionally, in the world of guitars, events influence the market. The introduction of a new guitar can send ripples through the industry. Not so long ago, Paul Reed Smith redefined…