Metal virtuoso Joe Stump believes Ritchie Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth, and Michael Schenker form the holy trinity of European metal guitar. And he should know. Not only has he built a long career creating incendiary music, he’s a Professor at The Berklee College of Music. His latest album, The Dark Lord Rises, is a heartfelt …

In the early ’70s, women didn’t play rock guitar. Nor did they front bands. Nancy Wilson was an exception. Few guitarists present as memorable an onstage image as does Wilson brandishing her famous custom-color Fender Telecaster onstage with Heart, the band she co-founded with her sister, Ann, in 1974. One of the biggest bands of …

1962 Ampeg R-12-R Reverberocket Preamp tubes: two 6SL7, two 6SN7 Output tubes: two 6V6, cathode-biased Rectifier: 5Y3 Controls: Volume, Tone, Dimension (reverb), Speed, and Intensity (tremolo) Speakers: Jensen Special Design C12R Output: approximately 18 watts RMS In the view of Ampeg main man Everett Hull, rock and roll was not a musical form to which …

Walden Sean Harkness 12-String, CG4070E Price: $1,100 (Sean Harkness Model); $1,350 (CG4070E-CERT) Info: www.waldenguitars.com. With 16 years of producing attractive, understated instruments, Walden Guitars puts an accent on quality materials and environmental awareness. If you are looking for a heavily inlaid showpiece to hang on your wall, look elsewhere; Walden specializes in guitars that emphasize …

Preamp tubes: three ECC83. Output tubes: four 6550. Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Pre-Amp Volume, Master Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Presence. Speakers: four Celestion G12T-75 12″ speakers per cab. Output: approximately 100 watts RMS. Late-’60s plexis might catch the majority of the raves, but the amp many music fans hear in their mind’s ear when they think …

Mark “Muddy” Dutton is one cool cat with an impressive resumé and an affinity for the budget-friendly basses of yesterday. Dutton laid down his retro grooves in bands alongside notable guitarists Craig Ross, Marc Ford, and Gilby Clarke before finding his home with Chris Robinson Brotherhood in 2011. Described by Robinson as a “farm-to-table psychedelic …

Malcolm Brickhouse was excited but confident after his band, Unlocking The Truth, recently performed its first headlining gig, at The Troubadour, in Hollywood. The 13-year-old guitarist has seen his Brooklyn-based band emerge from humble beginnings – playing for tips in Times Square – to, in the span of just months, play the festival circuit and …

All carved-top guitars and mandolins trace their ancestry back to Orville Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan. However, as this A model mandolin illustrates, Orville’s designs went through considerable refinement through the early years of the Gibson company’s existence to reach the standard of design that we know today. The highlights of Orville’s life are well-known: Born …

It’s hard not to associate doubleneck electric guitars with images of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page or fusion guru Mahavishnu John McLaughlin in the ’70s; however, the fact is that by the time the Big Js were stopping shows with these multi-headed beasts, they were already relics of the past. Doubleneck Spanish guitars got their first …

ToneVille Amplifiers Broadway Price: $2,295 Contact: www.tonevilleamps.com What is it that drives boutique amp builders to expend gallons of skull sweat striving for a more-perfect union between the pluck of steel strings over wire-wound magnets and obsolete 1950s audio technology? If you have to ask (or if you can’t appreciate the differences between an overdriven …

AmpRX BrownBox Voltage-Reduction Unit Price: $269.00 (list) Contact: www.amprx.net Amplifier repairman and builder Patrick Geraghty was frustrated with the sound of his own vintage-styled builds. They seemed to lack the vintage tones of the ’60s and ’70s. In addition to examining components, he also began to look at the disparity between the wall voltages of …

There’s a lot of looking back going on here. For his 23rd solo album, Eric Clapton reunites with producer Glyn Johns, who not only worked with the Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers and engineered several albums by Led Zeppelin, but produced Slowhand in 1977 and its follow-up, Backless. And, 39 years on, it’s not surprising …

In each issue of “Signal Chain,” we’ll take a guided tour of pro players’ pedalboards. We’re calling the feature “Star Board,” and we kick it off in this issue with a look at two of Carl Verheyen’s most-used pedal setups. Carl Verheyen’s “Pedalboard #1” Verheyen’s primary pedalboard for stage use has traveled the world with him. …

Most everyone has seen a department-store-catalog guitar (or two!) from the ’60s or ’70s. With their funky, cool body shapes and smorgasbord of knobs and switches, their looks grabbed ya’. Trouble was, they were usually plagued with cut-rate hardware and electronics, low build quality, and crude playability. The latest creation from Eastwood, the Airline Bighorn, …

Want a surreal experience? Try looking up from your oatmeal to see Robben Ford and Pat Metheny strolling past your table, Lee Ritenour and Daryl Stuermer grabbing waffles in the chow line, and Scott Tennant sipping orange juice while discussing repertoire with the L.A. Guitar Quartet. The sky is postcard blue and a lawn slopes …

The combo of two acoustic guitars and what could be considered modern-day standards seems on first blush like a recipe for a pretty common record. With a duo as talented and imaginative as Liza Carbe and J.P. Durand, though, it’s not plain in any way. The real beauty in this album, aside from the obvious …

The latest from guitarist Paul Mayasich and his band of buddies is an eclectic mix of American music. You get blues of all kinds, country, folk, and lots more – all of it laced with Mayasich’s biting electric guitar and acoustic slide. If big crunchy guitar is your idea of a good time, “High Time” …