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Vintage Guitar has put together a Rockin’ 4th of July playlist. Listen and enjoy! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account, Listen to the complete list HERE. Also On Spotify Vintage Guitar presents Buy That […]
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It’s not often that prime-time network television captures an audience of working class, professional musicians. In 1968, players watched Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore swap their Gibson SJ-200 and a Super 400 during Elvis’ “Comeback Special.” More recently, it’s been done with grace in a fictional musical drama. “Nashville” aired for four seasons on ABC, […]
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VG Approved Gear
Billionaire by Danelectro Big Spender
Rotary Club
In this day and age, there’s a lot of spin going down, but perhaps not enough of the right type. Enter the new Billionaire line of affordable effects from Danelectro, including the Big Spender spinning-speaker simulator. It’s spin control in all the best ways. Leslie speaker cabs are big and bulky, while Univox Uni-Vibes cost […]
Classic Instruments
The Fender Blender
Extreme Fuzz
When Robin Trower segued from his wah-driven blues-rock riffing into the slowed, deep-blues groove of the second half of his ’74 anthem “Too Rolling Stoned,” he kicked it over to a progressively more aggressive overdrive sound. And in his final screaming solo, he hits those big bluesy bends that made him famous, powering his Strat […]
Music
Black Sabbath
Vol. 4 Super Deluxe
Sabbaholic Must-Have In May of 1972, Black Sabbath retreated to Los Angeles to record its fourth album, along with a mountain of cocaine. The result was Vol. 4, perhaps the first stoner-metal album in history, ablaze with hippie freakdom, foggy lyrics, and crushing Iommi and Butler riffs. Now, a four-CD/five-LP box set revisits the metal […]
Artists
Tommy Castro
Amped Up
Fans of Tommy Castro might be shocked with some of the guitar tones on his latest record, The Devil You Know. His straightforward R&B sounds are still there, but, he says, “I had fun trying new stuff.” On his dozen or so career albums, Castro has made significant effort to mix it up. “I’ve done […]
VG Approved Gear
Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster
Flipped Axis
Pity the poor right-handed masses. Emulating the vibe of Jimi’s various Strats has always been tough on them. Some players chase down one of the precious few vintage left-handed Strats, flip it over, restring it, and suffer the oddities. Others swap lefty necks onto righty guitars. Either way, it’s never quite right (pun intended). Fender’s […]
VG Approved Gear
Gretsch G2420T Streamliner
Bang For The Buck
Want to rock like they did back in the glory days, but don’t have pockets deep enough for a top-line Gretsch hollowbody? Strap on one of the new G2420T Streamliners and turn it up. Ideal entry-level Gretsches, the line offers Cadillac looks at a price a back-alley garage-rocker can afford. And the sonic capabilities are […]
Music
Daniel de Visé
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
Sixty years, 90 countries, 15,000 concerts – and that tally doesn’t include B.B. King’s early years of juke joints, radio broadcasts, and street-corner serenades. Over the years, Riley “Blues Boy” King became the best known of bluesmen. Leave it to his erstwhile valet and chauffeur, Bobby “Blue” Bland, to crown him simply as “The Man.” […]
Music
Felix Martin
Mechanical Nations
Sometimes six strings just ain’t enough. Venezuelan Berklee alum Felix Martin uses 14 and sometimes 16 strings to explore the contrapuntal galaxy of progressive melody and rhythm. Sounding like a Chapman Stick player, Martin totes a real guitar – but with a lot more strings! A left-handed guitarist, he designs his own instruments to create […]
VG Approved Gear
DigiTech iStomp
Morph For Less
DigiTech iStomp Price: $149.95 Info: www.digitech.com/istomp If you’re the type of gearhead who turns heel and runs from DSP effects, let alone any equipment with a lower-case “i” in front of its name, set your preconceptions aside and dig into the DigiTech iStomp – a hardware stompbox that can be instantly reconfigured into the pedal […]
Classic Instruments
The Modulus Graphite Flight 6 Monocoque
High-/Low-Tech
In guitar history, irony is almost always the result of circumstances. The market changes overnight or someone makes a mistake that proves successful, etc. Rarely is the irony planned by a guitar designer, but that’s what happened with the Modulus Graphite Flight 6 Monocoque. While the origins of Modulus Graphite don’t qualify as “ironic,” they […]
Artists
Cliff Gallup
Crazy Fingers
There was a custom at Owen Bradley Film & Recording Studios in Nashville; artists cut vocal tracks with backing from Bradley’s crack team of session musicians including guitarists Grady Martin, Hank Garland, and Harold Bradley. The artist’s bandmates stayed home or watched from the sidelines. The A-team was in place on May 4, 1956, when Capitol […]
VG Approved Gear
Moniker Dixie Solid
Click to Customize
Moniker Dixie Solid Price: $849 (base) Info: www.monikerguitars.com. Moniker Guitars recently launched a line of customizable electric guitars that players design using an online configurator. Customizing a Moniker begins with selecting among three body types: the LP-style Reedsdale, Tele-style Dixie, or Jaguar-style Zuma (all in alder and available as semi or solid). From there, options […]
Artists
Lightnin’ Malcolm’s One-Man Wizardry
First-Rate Blues with Juke Joint Swagger Lightnin’ Malcolm learned blues first-hand from legends of the genre, and it shows! Here, he plays “Jungle” from his new album, “Eye Of The Storm,” using his G&L ASAT Special running through a Fender Hot Rod Deville. Our review of the album appears in the March issue. Read Now!
Music
The Mike Eldred Trio
Baptist Town
The Mike Eldred Trio’s latest was recorded at Memphis’ hallowed Sun Studios, but the deep blues are straight outta the Delta. Eldred needs little introduction here. The former Fender Custom Shop manager, he’s now focused on his guitar picking and songwriting skills. This is his third CD – and it’s a big step up in […]
Music
Jimmie Vaughan
The Pleasure’s All Mine
Vaughan’s 2010 album, Blues, Ballads and Favorites, honored his blues, R&B, country and rock roots, followed a year later by a second volume. This reissue offers both – all 31 exuberant, raw performances, mostly covers. Backed by A-list Austin players, with Billy Pitman playing rhythm, Vaughan is everywhere, singing and firing off stinging Strat breaks […]
Artists
Bex Marshall’s 1965 Gibson Hummingbird
Born In Plymouth, Devon, blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Bex Marshall grew up in a merry old England-style “mixed” family – her paternal great grandfather was the Squire of Cornwall while her mother’s side is descended from Irish Romany. For the latter, music has always been a part of life, and at family gatherings, her uncles would play […]
Music
The Time Jumpers
Kid Sister
Time Machine
The Time Jumpers formed in ’98 as a lark for a group of A-list Nashville sidemen who loved Western swing. Eighteen years later, they’ve become a local institution, energetically presenting the vintage music of the Southwest and California with forays into Texas honky-tonk. Instrumental breaks are fast and furious, and nearly every member sings. The […]