•  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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Budda 10th Ann. Limited Edition Twinmaster

Purple, Proud, and Punchy

In 1995, Budda Amplification made its debut with the Twinmaster Ten, a stripped-down, no-frills 18-watt combo designed to keep up with full stacks in terms of tone and volume. The…

Epiphone’s Masterbilt Century Deluxe Classic

The New Vintage

Most vintage aficionados admire the grand old acoustic archtops of the 1920s and ’30s, but admire them from afar. They’re beautifully built and boast lovely tone, but they have limitations…

Iconix Pickups Black Mass

Michigan Metal

Michigan may have given us the automobile production line, but Troy-based Iconix Pickups is the antithesis of an assembly line operation, and now Iconix is building quality pickups for a…

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom

Rockin’ Down the House

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom Price: $999 (Space Cadet)/$699 (MVX-15) Contact: www.musicvox.com For nearly two decades, Musicvox’s designs have captivated players and fans, appearing in Austin Powers and…

ZVEX Woolly Mammoth 7

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…

Dino’s Guitars Rust Box and Dynabox

Old-World Build For a New Gen

Dino’s Guitars Rust Box Italians have historically been known for great craftsmanship and detail. Names like Lamborghini and Maserati conjure the image of the exotic and the high-end detail required…

Railhammer Hyper Vintage Humbucker

Poles Apart

Railhammer Hyper Vintage Humbucker Price: $139 list/ $89 direct Info: www.railhammer.com Developed by Joe Naylor of Reverend Guitars, Railhammers are passive humbuckers that use a combination of pole pieces on…

Collings Julian Lage OM1 JL

Great Expectations

The late Bill Collings and his craftsmen are renowned for their beautiful-sounding guitars. It’s apt they’ve connected with a beautiful-sounding guitarist: jazzer Julian Lage, a rising musician known for his…

The Orange Acoustic Pedal

Juice To Spare

Since the dawn of amplification, engineers have sought a better mousetrap – a more-transparent signal chain that preserves signal and adds less noise. With its new Acoustic Pedal, Orange takes…

The Gretsch G5655T-CB Electromatic Center-Block

The Gretsch G5655T-CB Electromatic Center-Block

Gettin’ Gainy

The Gretsch G5655T-CB Electromatic Center-Block Price: $1,275.00 (list); $899.00 (street) Contact: www.gretschguitars.com It’s no secret that hollowbodies don’t excel in high-gain situations. Gretsch’s Electromatic line of guitars use a solid-spruce…

Killer Guitar Components Killer Trem Bridge

Bridging the Gap

In the mid 1950s, Leo Fender and his crew spent countless hours on the design and manufacture of their revolutionary new Stratocaster tremolo bridge. And in the 60-plus years since…

Kendrick Canary

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…

Danelectro Dano Minis

More tasty treats

Danelectro has been busy churning out yet another set of pedals that are inex-pensive and quite small. A good thing, since one can never have too many pedals. These are,…

Keeley Hydra Stereo Reverb & Tremolo

The Life Aquatic

Stompbox wizard Robert Keeley’s latest creation packs a boatload of deep-sea diver sounds in one small package. The Hydra Stereo Reverb & Tremolo offers three reverb algorithms (Room, Plate, and…

The Fractal VP4

Pedal Power

Famous for amp and cabinet models made to replace an amp for direct recording or plugging right into a PA, Fractal Audio has also developed an array of highly regarded…

Randall MTS RM50/RM100

For the gotta-have-more tube amp lover

After trying to get together for several years, in 2002, tube amp guru Bruce Egnater officially joined forces with Randall Amplification. The result? Randall’s MTS guitar amps! With its interchangeable…

Grammatico LaGrange

Have Mercy!

Grammatico LaGrange Price: $1,850 Info: www.grammaticoamps.com. Stop the presses! John Grammatico has added a second amp to his line. Of course, this wouldn’t be headline news with most amp-makers, who…

Rockn Stompn Sequential Power Strip

“Good” Power!

Power. Juice. Electricity. The brilliance of Ben Franklin, James Watt, and Nikola Tesla helped harness, if not tame, this vital energy. Subsequent refinements that are of particular interest to guitarists…

Mojotone ’58 Quiet Coil Strat Pickups

Quiet, Please

Players love that single-coil sound but hate the noise and hum that generally come with them. For the most part, “noiseless” pickups, whether stacked coils, side-by-side coils, or other designs,…

Gibson Falcon 5

Timeless

Drawing inspiration from its classic Skylark amplifiers of the 1950s and ’60s, Gibson is revisiting those beloved tones with the Falcon 5. Designed by Randall Smith and his Mesa/Boogie team…

Matchless DC-30

Matchless DC-30

Preamp Tubes: One EF86, three 12AX7s (one for PI) Output Tubes: Four EL84s in class A, cathode-bias. Rectifier: GZ34 Controls: Channel 1 – Volume, Bass, Treble: Channel 2 – Volume,…

Siegmund Micro Tube Overdrive

Stompbox Subtlety

Chris Siegmund is an up-and-coming guitar/amp wizard from Vienna, Austria. A unique type of craftsman, Siegmund is a musician born to a family of architects and furniture makers. He began…

Banker Excalibur Derringer

Lordy Mama, Light My Fuse

Gibson guitars from the ’50s and ’60s are some of the most-sought after instruments on the planet, and re-creating the look, tone, and feel from that golden era is no…

Girl Brand Crossroads

One Devlishly Sweet Axe

Girl Brand Guitars… No it’s not a clearing house for sparkley pink and purple guitars with short-scale necks and small bodies. Rather, Girl Brand is the brainchild of Tucson-based luthier,…

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit

Vintage-Safe Voltage

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit Price: $269.00 (list) Contact: www.amprx.net Amplifier repairman and builder Patrick Geraghty was frustrated with the sound of his own vintage-styled builds. They seemed to lack the…

Killer Guitar Components Killer Trem Bridge

Bridging the Gap

In the mid 1950s, Leo Fender and his crew spent countless hours on the design and manufacture of their revolutionary new Stratocaster tremolo bridge. And in the 60-plus years since…

Yamaha’s Revstar RSP20CR

Mod Rocker

Having spent the last 120 years perfecting righteous guitar tones, Yamaha has set out to increase their coolness quotient. The design of their latest guitar line – the Revstar Series…

Keeley Engineering Compressor Pro

Keeley Engineering Compressor Pro

Game Changer

Keeley Engineering Compressor Pro Price: $299 (list) Contact: www.robertkeeley.com Studio-quality dynamic control at your feet is a luxury that guitarists haven’t seen before. With the Compressor Pro, Keeley Engineering has…

EHX Spruce Goose OD

Blues-breakers Bump

Known and loved for its smooth breakup and sensitivity, Marshall’s Bluesbreaker circuit is a legend unto itself. The Spruce Goose Overdrive is the Electro-Harmonix version of it. Offering a simple…

Boss AC-22LX

Acoustic Air

On the surface, Boss’ AC-22LX is a 10-watt acoustic-electric guitar amp with two channels. But, dig in, and goodies are revealed. One is a drum machine with five sounds, from…