
Luther Dickinson
The North Mississippi Allstars have always moved forward. With an expanded lineup and fresh songwriting, guitarist Luther Dickinson is in musical heaven. Set Sail displays Dickinson’s penchant for building atmosphere with lush tremolo, ping-pong slapback, and masterful slide. Strong chemistry heightens the album’s crafty songs, but Dickinson is forever steady rollin’. What are your thoughts […]
Grez Mendocino Short Scale Bass
In the beginning, there was the Precision Bass. Following Leo Fender’s revelation, things branched out in all directions as builders experimented with the idea that the double bass could be embodied in the form of a guitar. It wasn’t long before bassists had options including semi-hollows. Grez Guitars tips its hat to that particular sound […]
Andy Green Pedals’ Seaverb
Andy Green offers “basic building blocks” of tone – a concise lineup of effects including distortion, overdrive, fuzz, and reverb. One of those blocks measures 4.75″ x 2.5 x 1.625″ and is painted with a surf scene riffing on the iconic Endless Summer film poster. The Seaverb is a hand-assembled spring-reverb simulation with a slew […]
TWA GD-02 Great Divide Analog Synth Octaver
TWA GD-02 Great Divide Analog Synth Octaver Price: $399 Info: www.godlyke.com . Despite its cumbersome name and the fact it looks like it might require an MIT degree to use, the TWA GD-02 Great Divide Analog Synth Octaver is simple and relatively intuitive to use – and a lot of fun. At its heart, the […]
Metropolitan Tanglewood
Many guitar aficionados are aware of the instruments proffered by Houston’s Alamo Music. The Texas manufacturer has created unique low-end (sonically, that is) items, some as regular production basses, others as prototype and/or custom-orders. Among the most unique and rare were no more than a half-dozen map-shaped Metropolitan Tanglewood basses created in the mid/late ’90s. […]
A 5E3 Mystery
Readers of Vintage Guitar occasionally stumble on unique, prototype, or otherwise fascinatingly non-standard amps, and it’s a pleasure to share when they’re made available to us. In an upcoming issue, we’ll feature an Ampeg prototype, but this month, we’re looking at the “opposite” of a prototype – an amp made well after the model was […]
Eric Bibb plays “Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie”
Soulful Blues Beyond I-IV-V Sensational fingerstylist Eric Bibb uses the ’47 Levin Model 13 Ambassadör to honor us with a bit of Lead Belly’s “Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie,” from his latest album, “Live at the Scala Theatre, Stockholm.” Catch our review of the album in the July issue. Read Now!
Gregg Wright plays “Hey Li’l Girl”
Fiery riffs from a blues-rock legend! Gregg Wright has opened for Albert and Freddie King, and toured with The Jacksons. Here, he uses a custom-made Fret-King GWR running to a Marshall DSL-40 to play the old-school blues riff and a spicy lead from “Hey Li’l Girl,” one of the tracks from his stellar new album, […]
Eric Clapton’s “Blackie”
This may well be the most desirable Fender Stratocaster on the face of the planet. And it happens to be a beat-up mongrel assembled from parts taken from three 1950s guitars. Nevertheless, Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” is one of the most recognized celebrity-associated instruments in the history of the electric guitar, and it served Slowhand’s needs […]
Slim Bryant
Thomas Hoyt Bryant, known to family and friends as “Slim,” met Perry Bechtel in Atlanta 1929. “I heard your record, ‘Wabash Blues,’ and I want to play it just like that,” he declared. “I can teach you that in 30 minutes,” the older man responded. “But if you want to play ’em all like that, […]
1905 Gibson F-2
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 […]
Warwick Thumb Bass
Founded in the early 1980s by Hans-Peter Wilfer, Warwick has a familial connection to another well-known German brand from a time when that nation was divided following World War II. Wilfer’s father, Fred, founded Framus in 1946, and Hans-Peter worked at the company’s facility before it closed in the ’70s. His desire to build stringed […]
Eastwood Sidejack DLX 20th LTD
If you love twangy guitars from the ’60s, you know about Mosrites – the immortal slabs of The Ventures and Ramones. Twenty years ago, Eastwood Guitars made its own variation and called it the Sidejack. To mark the model’s birthday, the company launched a special edition dubbed the DLX 20th LTD, and VG got its […]
Peavey Vypyr VIP2
Peavey Vypyr VIP2 Price: $199.99 Contact: www.peavey.com For more than 40 years Peavey’s ongoing evolution while building guitars, amps, and pro audio equipment has attracted some big names in the music industry. Adding to their substantial amp roster is their latest offering in the category of modeling amps. Peavey calls the Vypyr VIP 2 “The […]
United They Stood, Part 2
In the history of guitars, the tale of United Guitar Corporation is a ghost story – little documented and lost in partially self-imposed obscurity. Operating from 1939 into the late ’60s/early ’70s, United was a wholesale firm that built instruments exclusively for others to sell. In ’52, it made one brief attempt to compete in […]
The Birth of Newman Guitars
Newman Guitars was established in Austin, TX in 1977 by Ted Newman Jones. Ted was a pioneer of design and began working for Keith Richards exclusively in late 1971. Ted and Keith designed the first five string open “G” guitar during the 1972 Rolling Stones U.S. Tour for Exile on Mainstreet and he worked […]