•  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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Paul Hartmann Custom Manhattan

The Paul Hartmann Custom Manhattan

Not Your Granddaddy’s Semi-Hollow

The Paul Hartmann Custom Manhattan Price: $3,895 as tested Contact: www.phguitars.com Luthier Paul Hartmann’s Custom Manhattan is a classic semi-hollowbody, but one that displays a growing industry trend – replacing…

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…

Rob Wrobel Le Voyage Lace III

Boxed Up

Cigar-box guitars are a 19th-century creation that today are enjoying a trendy surge in popularity, and attracting the design expertise of some talented folks. Why? Well, because cigar box guitars…

JHS 3 Series

Budget Boutique

JHS’ seven new 3 Series pedals strip away cosmetics and frills. History has told us that simple pedal designs can sacrifice key elements. Is that the case here? Presented in…

Danelectro ’59 Resonator

Book This Dano

While guitar enthusiasts expend a lot of brain power waxing poetic about tonewoods, for many VG readers of a certain vintage, that gateway experience with an electric guitar may very…

Marshall Triple Super Lead

Marshall's Triple Super Lead

Marshall’s new JCM2000 Series was introduced last year and has been well-received by Marshall fans and amp aficionados in general. The 2000 Series started with the two-channel Dual Super Lead…

Michael Kelly 1957

Michael Kelly 1957

Bargain Boutique

Michael Kelly 1957 Price: $875 (list) Contact: www.michaelkellyguitars.com Michael Kelly Guitars has steadily gained a reputation for offering big bang for the buck. The Michael Kelly 1957 model solidbody extends…

Guild’s B-240EF

Stop Your Frettin’

It would be easy to look at the price of Guild’s B-240EF and assume it’s just another low-end acoustic/electric bass – except that it plays like a much more expensive…

Smit Boosted Classic and Bucker Lite pickups

PAF Plus? S

Smit Boosted Classic/Bucker Lite Being a guitarist for more than 30 years, Kevin Smith learned much in his quest for great tone. For years he has dissected pickups while devising…

Blackbird Guitars’ Lucky 13

Blackbird Guitars’ Lucky 13

Nice Roll

Blackbird Guitars’ Lucky 13 Price: $1,850 (list)/$2,050 (with Fishman electronics) Info: www.blackbirdguitar.com What has a 13-fret neck, a small-but-curvaceous body like a classic early-’30s Gibson, and a sound that conjures…

Fender Songwriter

The Songwriter: Ill-fated Mini-Fender

Just when you think you’ve seen or heard of everything Fender ever did, along comes another tidbit about a guitar that was prototyped but never produced. In 1969 and ’70…

Tech 21 Steve Harris SH1 Signature SansAmp

Tone of the Beast

Tech 21’s Steve Harris SH1 Signature Sans Amp celebrates the tone of metal icon Harris, Iron Maiden’s bassist, songwriter, and driving force. For 40 years, Harris has delivered a brash…

Saint Blues

St. Blues Bluesmaster, Blindsider, and Delta Blues Box

Straight from the Delta

Saint Blues Bluesmaster/Blindsider Price: $2,399 (Bluesmaster); $2,550 (Blindsider) Info: saintblues.com St. Blues’ history stretches back to the days when its founders customized guitars for the likes of Jimmy Page, Billy…

Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5

Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5

Pretty, Stunning

Hull Amplifiers’ Model H5 Price: $3,199 (list) Contact: www.hullamps.blogspot.com A beat-up ol’ blackface amp can be a thing of beauty, like an old muscle car showing its miles in patches…

Homestead Amps HS50

Tone On The Range

So, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Waylon Jennings walk into a bar… No, wait, they walk into a NAMM Show. And, no joke, when they carry their iconic tooled-leather Firebird and…

Newman Guitars’ Honeycomb Chambered Jr.

Way Cool Version

Following Ted Newman Jones’ passing in 2016, protégé Jeff Smith took over Newman Guitars and is furthering the vision, using the same offset body as Jones’ original guitars but employing…

Crucial Audio WahVelope

Tube Funk

Crucial Audio makes high-end tube pedals and studio gear at its shop in southern Delaware. Its latest, the WahVelope, is both auto-wah and envelope filter – and it also hides…

EarthQuaker Devices’ Space Spiral Modulated Delay

Will You Repeat That?

One particularly well-worn joke about playing a bad note advises you to play it twice so folks will think you meant it. But what about all those good notes that…

Preston Thompson 00-45

New Old Vintage

Given their scarcity, few mortal pickers will ever own a pre-war Martin 00 or 000 with 45-level appointments. But a handful of luthiers have dedicated their work to building instruments…

Rivera Shaman Series Pedals

Holy Tones

Rivera Shaman Series Pedals Price: $299 each (street) Info: www.rivera.com. With roots stretching to the late ’70s, SoCal-based Rivera Amplification is best known for their handbuilt-in-the-U.S.A. tube amps. Not to…

Fender Clapton and Beck Strats

Slowhand meets El Becko

Fender’s Signature line of Strats and Teles have always been of great interest to guitar players, and are now even more so since they’ve updated the Eric Clapton and Jeff…

Walrus Audio Messner Stage-One Overdrive

Into Thin Air

First off, who the heck is this Messner guy? Well, in 1978, mountaineer Reinhold Messner became the first person to scale Mount Everest without the help of oxygen tanks. Cool,…

Walrus Audio’s Bellwether Dela

The Bell Tolls For Thee

The Bellwether from Walrus Audio is a high-end analog delay notable for its tone, adaptability, and depth of control. The pedal’s capabilities will exceed many players’ needs, but the Bellwether…

BMF Effects’ GeSpot Fuzz

Pure Pleasure

If the sheer number of fuzz pedals available today is any indication, the “noisy” little boxes are perhaps the most popular effects. One outfit that offers a good selection amid…

VVT Lindy Fralin Model amplifier

Toneful Tag-Team

Maryland-based amplifier builder Vintage Vacuum Tube Amplifiers (you may know it as VVT) recently fielded a request from renowned pickup winder Lindy Fralin. He wasn’t looking for advice on wire…

Cimarron Guitars’ Model P

From the Parlor to the Stage

Cimarron Guitars has being making custom instruments since 1978 in the dry, mild climate of southwest Colorado. The company’s Model P guitar gets its name from its parlor-guitar-sized body (“parlor”…

PRS Silver Sky

Stratospheric

Paul Reed Smith has for years experimented with Leo-inspired concepts, and his newest guitar, conceived in collaboration with rocker John Mayer, lands squarely in that traditional single-coil solidbody arena. But…

Eastwood La Baye 2x4 Devo Signature Model

Eastwood La Baye 2×4 Devo Signature Model

Whip It Good

For decades, guitarists have lovingly referred to their solidbody guitars as “planks.” In the mid ’60s, a small builder called LaBaye upped the ante by offering a guitar truly was…

Baker B1H and BJH

Top quality looks, playability, and tone

This month, the VG Product Advisory Council received a pair of Baker guitars, a B1H and a BJH, from new-kid-on-the-block Gene Baker, in California. Both guitars are mid-sized semi-hollow designs…

SynapticGroove Snapperhead OD/Distortion

SynapticGroove Snapperhead OD/Distortion

Dirty Deeds

With their first offering, Benjamin Harrison and Chrystal Gilles of SynapticGroove set out to fill the gap between heavy effects users and straight-into-the-amp players. Apparently, they’re on to something. They…