The Ernie Ball Music Man Luke3 Price: $2,500 (HH, list); $2,550 (HSS, list) Contact: www.music-man.com The latest model in Ernie Ball Music Man’s Steve Lukather signature series was designed to answer Lukather’s demand for an instrument that is simple yet versatile. The Luke3 (a.k.a. LIII), available in dual humbucker (HH) and humbucker-single-single (HSS) configurations, is […]
Ana Popovic was but a toddler when she started to absorb major musical mojo through her father’s love of the blues, classic rock, and most importantly, thanks to the rec-room jams he would stage with buddies. By the time she was 14, the Serbia-born-and-raised Popovic was taking private lessons on classical guitar, but, “After a […]
St. Blues Juke Joint Series Price: $1,798 (list, Bluemaster/Mississippi Bluemaster); $1,898 (list, Legendary Bass) Contact: www.saintblues.com With the elimination of its Korean-made Pro Series and the introduction of the Juke Joint Series, Memphis-based St. Blues can boast an entire lineup made in the good ol’ U.S. of A. St. Blues’ initial offerings in the Juke […]
1967, the Summer of Love. Everything still seemed possible, and anything went. No more war, racial and gender equality, Fresh Cream, the Beatles best record ever, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Phew! What a difference the next year would bring! And that applied to guitars. None more than this classic minimalist La Baye 2×4 “Six.” This […]
“SO U” DUE OUT MAY 19TH VIA FRONTIERS RECORDS
Vox AC50 Preamp tubes: one ECC82 (12AU7), three ECC83 (12AX7) Output tubes: two EL34s, fixed-biased Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Volume, Treble and Bass for each channel. Output: nominally 50 watts RMS, but upward of 70 watts flat-out. Where the evolution of guitar amplification in general traces musicians’ needs to be louder, the history of Vox follows, […]
There’s never been a shortage of young guitar hotshots, but in recent years, particularly among blues players, these phenoms seem to be promoted more for their age than their playing. The early work of Robben Ford helps put all this hubbub in perspective. In 1970, when the 18-year-old guitarist/saxophonist came out of Ukiah, in Northern […]
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 the treble side and rails on the bass side. It’s an interesting motif with an effective purpose. The Railhammers’s six oversize poles under the treble […]
When pop-music fans in the U.K. talk about guitar heroes, they tend to put more stake in the way a player’s work fits, contextually, into that of his band. To wit, in a 2006 poll, BBC listeners were asked to choose the best guitarist to emerge since 1980, and many of the 30,000 who responded […]
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 […]
