Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into a ’68 Super Reverb) play “Lady Love Divine,” one of the fine tunes from his latest album, “The Wolves Are Coming.” Catch our interview with Philip in the April issue. Read Now!
Absorbing and exuding great vibes from his living room, Philip Sayce and his PRS Silver Sky (plugged into a ’68 Super Reverb) play “Lady Love Divine,” one of the fine tunes from his latest album, “The Wolves Are Coming.” Catch our interview with Philip in the April issue. Read Now!
One of the least un-derstood aspects of American guitar history is the role of musical instrument distributors. It’s one thing to be able to manufacture guitars, but quite another to get them to customers, especially in an era when your purchase was likely to be from a local store or teacher (excepting mail order). Enthusiasts […]
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Calling Steve Dawson a “roots” artist seems a disservice to a musician so eclectic and wildly talented. On Eyes Closed, Dreaming, he effortlessly mixes earthy rock and roll, soul, Hawaiian, country, and blues highlighted by dextrous slide and superior acoustic fingerpicking. When he’s not recording and touring, Dawson hosts a podcast called “Music Makers and […]
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Introduced in 1980, the M.V. Pedulla Buzz Bass is one of the most-enduring examples of an upscale model offered fretless. Designed by luthier Michael Pedulla in Brockton, Massachusetts, it was created with the input of two notable locals. And as with many innovations, it all started with a not-insignificant faux pas. Seeking to emulate the […]
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In the ’60s, Gibson strived mightily to meet the demands of players of all levels while also working to maintain its image as industry leader. One of its primary attempts at the latter involved the Firebird guitars and Thunderbird basses introduced in ’63. Marked by innovative neck-through construction, unique features and looks, the Thunderbird’s full-size scale […]
Her overnight success was decades in the making, but a video gone viral of a jaw-dropping slide guitar performance at the 2014 North Atlantic Blues Festival has helped bring Joanna Connor to the world. With nearly a half a million views, the performance displays scholarly blues virtuosity and crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics. In recent years, she has […]
More is always better, right? Eleven is better than 10 on an amplifier, three pickups are better than two, and so on! That’s the promise of the seven-string. So when Jimmy Page showed up onstage in the ’70s with a doubleneck guitar, crowds went wild. Strum rhythm parts on the 12, break into a solo […]
Imagine a Strat tuned to open G, a D chord being floated at the seventh fret with a Craftsman deep-well socket. What is that ethereal sweetness and sustain under Lowell George’s voice? Oh, yeah… a compressor pedal. The Little-Feat-approved Dyna Comp and the Ross Compressor are the inspirations for Guitar Tech Craig’s Dino Sauce, which […]
For decades, Stuart has been one of country music’s biggest champions, and may yet be its savior. His Fabulous Superlatives are one of the tightest, most authentic country bands and possibly the most versatile – as demonstrated on the RFD Channel’s “Marty Stuart Show,” where they’ve backed everyone from Kitty Wells to Sam Moore. As […]
Though his status as a member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers has changed since VG last talked to him, guitarist Buddy Whittington has forged ahead with a solo career. In ’07, he was lead guitarist for Mayall, but the entire band was “kicked out of the nest” the following year. “I’d been there for 15 years […]
The history of the musical instrument business is full of stories, from the drab to the miraculous. Some bean counters will busily push their way to the forefront, grabbing for a piece of history, while others quietly create. Seth Lover peers out at me from the doorway of his humble Southern California ranch house looking […]
Contrary to what longtime fans may have heard, Ernie Isley didn’t take guitar lessons from Jimi Hendrix. Though Ernie hung out with Hendrix in the Isley’s home while Jimi was a member of the family band, it was before Ernie had picked up the guitar. That brush with the legend may have inspired the youngest […]
Grammy-winning flatpicking wizard Billy Strings was everywhere in 2022. Rightly seen as part of the vanguard of a new generation of Appalachian-inspired players rooted in the sounds of Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Clarence White and other past icons, for the young phenom, this project is deeply personal. It’s a return to his roots with his […]
Ukrainian guitarist fuses…. everything Inspired by Pat Metheny, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan and others, guitarist Roman Bulakhov fuses rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop – and everything else into a radical, acrobatic stew. Here, his D’Angelico Excel DC is running through a the Neural DSP Quad Cortex and a Vox AC30 while he plays “Kyiv Time,” from […]
I’ve always loved sounds. Even before I became a ‘Tele guy,’ I had a Les Paul and loved making car horn sounds. I … go away from the fretboard, or into the toggle switches… I’ve always been very attracted to odd sounds.” If you give even a quick listen to Telecaster master Jim Campilongo’s latest […]
Records featuring the music of Jimi Hendrix are pretty far from a new thing. Since Jimi’s death, various forms of recorded tribute have been paid, many (probably most) by guitarists. Usually, they’re very reverential, with arrangements that mirror the originals. But often, they’re just plain boring. Not so with the new Phil Brown release, The […]
For guitar lovers and roots-music fans, the place to be in July ’13 was British Columbia. The Vancouver Island MusicFest held a true summit meeting of masters of the Telecaster (with an asterisk). Britain’s Albert Lee is acclaimed for his work with Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, the Everly Brothers, and others. Amos Garrett played the […]
Roland’s Blues Cube Artist Price: $1,169 (list)/$899 (street) Contact: www.rolandus.com Roland has reinvented and relaunched its Blues Cube combos with a series featuring Roland’s exclusive Tube Logic design that carefully emulates the preamp and poweramp tube responses of classic tube amps. One of these, the Blues Cube Artist, features a classic old-school appearance – cream-colored […]
A reissue of the cult ’90s pedal from the grunge and alt-rock era, the Meatbox Subsynth is a combination booster, octaver, and lo-fi bass synth. The box has four knobs – Octave, Output, Sub, and Low – so operation is a breeze. On one hand, you can use it as an octaver, simply adding a […]
With progressive-rock juggernaut Emerson, Lake & Palmer, bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (1947-2016) played more than one instrument made by the renowned British luthier Tony Zemaitis. Known for their fancy tops of pearl or exquisitely engraved metal, Zemaitis instruments were truly handcrafted works of art, and the list of players who ordered them reads like the ultimate […]
Many aren’t aware that some of the archtop guitars Gibson produced during the Depression were marketed under different brand names, including Kalamazoo, Recording King, Cromwell, Fascinator, and Kel Kroyden, among others. These shared similar features and construction techniques with the low-line Gibson-branded instruments such as the L-30 and L-50: a spruce top, mahogany body and […]
