Gibson 1941 SJ-100 Price: $3,868 (list)/$2,999 (street) Info: www.gibson.com. Sporting a unique “stair step” headstock, the first Gibson SJ-100s began trickling out of the Kalamazoo factory in 1939. This original design lasted only two model years before it was replaced in 1941 with a second version that was itself soon discontinued, this time due to […]
If Hadden Sayers’ 2011 release, Hard Dollar, was a way to get his feet wet again, his latest, Rolling Soul, represents a full return to the music world. The guitarist had been at it hard and heavy for more than a decade before personal events took him a bit out of the music realm. “I […]
Ex-Motorhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke is back with his first Fastway album in more than two decades. It’s called Eat Dog, Eat and it’s a hard-hitting heavy-duty rock record with the kind of blazing guitar tones that brought Clarke to prominence. The current lineup of Fastway has been playing Europe and Japan, and has lost […]
Over a career spanning 52 years, the passage of time only enhanced Doc Watson’s stature. His virtuosity and musical range, merged with an abiding sense of tradition, entertained, amazed, and moved generations of fans, players, and non-players. It ended with his death May 29 at age 89 at a hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A […]
“A lot of critics perceived us as being pretentious,” says Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson of his band’s early years. “We were not representative of where they thought rock was heading.” • Responding after being asked about a comment he made in the award-winning 2010 documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage(“We always felt it was us against […]
From 1954 through ’59, the Fender Electric Instrument Mfg. Co. built guitar amplifiers with controls mounted atop using “chickenhead” knobs that go to 12, and covered with “the finest airplane luggage linen.” This line represents the company’s classic “tweed era,” and from the diminutive Champ to the mighty Twin, it remained virtually unchanged throughout the […]
Electro-Harmonix Superego Synth Engine Price: $283.60 (retail); $212.70 (street) Contact: www.ehx.com Building on the success of its Freeze Sound Retainer (a.k.a. the world’s shortest looper), the Electro-Harmonix Superego Synth Engine is a “short” sampler pedal, but with more control and options. The Superego not only allows the player to capture or freeze notes and chords […]
In the opinion of most American mandolinists, Gibson brought mandolin design to a level of perfection in 1922, with the introduction of the Master Model F-5. It wasn’t much earlier – 25 years or so – that Orville Gibson created the F model as one of two mandolin body styles (the other being the symmetrical […]
Paul Gilbert and the crew that makes up Mr. Big – bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Pat Torpey, and vocalist Eric Martin – reunited a couple years ago on the heels of a Gilbert gig at the L.A. House of Blues where he, Sheehan, and Torpey jumped onstage together. Digging the vibe, they soon called Martin, […]
Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass Price: $699 (street) Info: www.epiphone.com. Rock-and-roll bassists of the ’60s like Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, and Duck Dunn brought something to the game that succeeding generations continue to chase. On the West Coast, Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady was known for melodic flights thumped out […]
