The yellow-and-black attack of the Christian-metal band Stryper has returned. The band’s new album, Second Coming, helps mark 30 years of preaching their metal gospel and selling more than 10 million albums worldwide. The band returns to the spotlight with a renewed sense of vigor and passion. Second Coming is 16 tracks including re-recordings of […]
The name “Johnny Smith” is synonymous with class, elegance, and style. Most guitar players are familiar, if not with the man or his music, certainly with the guitars that bear his name. The instruments reflect Smith’s unique approach to playing and jazz guitar, in particular – ultra-smooth and restrained, yet sophisticated. From the Gretsch Synchromatic […]
McElroy OM Model Price: $7,500 (base; $8,500 as reviewed) Info: www.mcelroyguitars.com. Brent McElroy is a Seattle luthier specializing in high-quality acoustics. One of them, the OM Model from his Generation 2 series, is inspired by old-school Martins. The concert-body guitar sports a bear-claw Adirondack spruce top (so named for its wide, raked grain), Madagascar rosewood […]
If you were an American teenager in the late 1950s or early ’60s, and you wanted to play the new rock music, you likely did not have a solidbody electric guitar from Fender, Gibson, or Rickenbacker. More likely the guitar would be from Harmony, Kay, or Supro. If you lived in the U.K., you probably […]
1978 Gibson Marauder M-1 Every once in awhile, someone in Gibson R&D gets a brainstorm like, “I know! Why don’t we make a bolt-neck guitar!” So they do. And the result is almost always interesting – and almost always a commercial flop. Call it “Les Paul syndrome.” Guitar aficionados are the beneficiaries of both sides […]
After spending nearly a decade with harp ace Jason Ricci, guitarist Shawn Starski has stepped out with a self-titled album that establishes him as a triple threat, not simply a guitar ace. It’s a position he’s not altogether comfortable with, mostly because, prior to composing its songs, Starski had never written lyrics. “I wrote a […]
Rebel Board’s Rockstar Pedalboard Price: $159 (Rockstar); $199 (Rockstar Pro) Info: www.rebel-boards.com. Puzzle-piecing a pedalboard together is equal parts fun and frustration. If you’ve ever wished for a custom board but price got in the way, one manufacturer now has you covered. Rebel Boards produces a handcrafted wooden pedalboard called the Rockstar that measures 24″ […]
In addition to touring and recording with the legendary English band, Moody Blues lead guitarist/vocalist Hayward released his most recent solo album, Spirits of the Western Sky, in February. Such work affords him the option of writing songs in a different style. One of numerous aspiring musicians who as a youngster listened to Radio Luxembourg […]
As Hawaiian music gained popularity in the 1920s and ’30s, performers turned from guitars made of wood to metal-resonator instruments produced by the National Stringed Instrument Company. By the mid ’30s, many began to play electrically amplified instruments because they were louder and sweeter-sounding than even the resonators – and more practical when performing before […]
Giffin Vikta Price: $2,295 Contact: www.premierbuildersguild.com Roger Giffin is a guitarmaker to the stars, having built for Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, Mark Knopfler, Andy Summers, David Gilmour, and many others. He also ran the Gibson Custom Shop in California for many years before striking out on his own. Now producing his own […]
