VG readers know Samantha Fish is the real deal. Here, she uses a Martin D-18 Modern Deluxe on an unplugged arrangement of “I’m Done Runnin’,” the ripping lead track from her new album, “Paper Doll.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!
VG readers know Samantha Fish is the real deal. Here, she uses a Martin D-18 Modern Deluxe on an unplugged arrangement of “I’m Done Runnin’,” the ripping lead track from her new album, “Paper Doll.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!
This month, we feature The Dobbie Brothers, Popa Chubby, Joey Molland, Carlos Alomar, Cream, David Bowie, Rush, Norman Harris, Greg Koch, Rik Emmett, Chris Walz, Elmore James, and more! 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 […]
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Tennessee amp builder Kevin Shaw loves restoring old cars – and creating fine-sounding amplifiers. His ToneRod SE and Fulltilt 18 helped establish him as a factor among amp builders, and his latest offering is (as the name implies) a bass head – the Audio Bass 130. Among modern Class D bass heads, and their enormous […]
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There are times when a traditional Strat or Tele won’t scratch a particular itch, and you need a retro plank with a specific look and sound to get the job done. The DiPinto Mach IV might be a choice for such situations. While its classic ’60s looks (inspired, of course, by the Mosrite Ventures model) […]
“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Neal Shelton Season 01 Episode 06 In Episode 6 of “Buy That Guitar” presented by Vintage Guitar mag, host Ram Tuli is joined by Neal Shelton, who operates Neal’s Music Store, in Huntington Beach, California. They discuss the best and most-collectible guitars of the ’80s. Links: Neal Shelton […]
Calexico has long crisscrossed the border between American (blues, country, rock and roll) and Latin-American sounds, but the band’s latest is a borderless exploration of shimmering, luminous music. Vocalist/guitarist/accordionist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino are at the heart of the band, working more than 20 years now with an array of fellow players; this […]
Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly talented musicians, the group reached audiences by creating songs with compelling observations on subjects like sex and drug addiction. As a solo performer, Reed (1942-2013) built an image as a moody, antisocial rocker using songs […]
In the late 1970s, trends combined to spawn several new guitar companies in the Chicago area motivated by a desire to “build a better Gibson.” The list included Dean and Hamer, both of which impressed players with their high degree of hand-crafted detail. To that fraternity should be added Silver Street guitars. At the time, […]
Ever since Jimmy Page grabbed a bow for “Dazed and Confused,” players have tried to bridge the gap between guitars and their fretless counterparts. To that end, Pickaso introduced the Guitar Bow, a workable mini-bow for acoustic guitar. In hand, the Pickaso is a surprisingly sturdy accessory. Made from plastic and chrome-coated aluminum, the device […]
Vox AC50 Preamp tubes: one ECC82 (12AU7), three ECC83 (12AX7) Output tubes: two EL34s, fixed-biased Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Volume, Treble and Bass for each channel. Output: nominally 50 watts RMS, but upward of 70 watts flat-out. Where the evolution of guitar amplification in general traces musicians’ needs to be louder, the history of Vox follows, […]
Rusty Young, the versatile pedal-steel guitarist, guitarist, singer/songwriter, and original member of the pioneering country-rock band Poco, died at his home after suffering a heart attack on April 14. He was 75. “Our friendship was 50-plus years,” Poco co-founder Richie Furay sadly reflected on social media. “Together, we helped create what became known as the […]
Jazz guitar recently lost one of the great ones. Jack Wilkins, champion of modern traditionalism (or is it traditional modernism?) passed on May 5, leaving an unsurpassable legacy. An exponent of the post-Wes Montgomery school, he emerged just after George Benson and Pat Martino, and took guitar-driven hard bop to another level. Born in Brooklyn […]
Blues-rocker Samantha Fish (VG, December ’21) electrifies audiences with her high-energy shows. A decade ago, she began favoring Category 5’s 50-watt/cathode-biased Andrew amp onstage. In 2021, she and builder Don Ritter started designing a signature model based on the Andrew’s blackface-inspired Channel 2 but with a slight emphasis on midrange, and tighter low-end response. The […]
It’s hard out there for a ’70s guitar hero. With the struggles of keeping older fans happy verses the challenge of presenting new material, it can be an arduous battle between art and business. Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham has faced this challenge and stands victorious with Black Star Riders. The band’s third album, […]
“It was born at the junction of form and function,” country guitar ace Bill Kirchen sings in “Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods.” And though he was referring to the Fender Telecaster, H.P. Newquist made it clear in his speech on the opening night of the exhibit “Guitar: The Instrument That Rocked The World – […]
Contrary to what some aspiring bass players might think, the world’s most recorded electric bassist isn’t some modern-day L.A. dude purveying “NAMM chops” (to quote John Pattitucci) aplenty with the thumb and fingers of both hands flying all over his instrument. And they don’t have a custom neck-through bass (with five or six strings) and […]
Scandinavia is no stranger to good “instro” music. The past 60 years have produced guitar-fueled legends like the Spotnicks (Sweden), Jørgen Ingmann (Denmark), and Laika & the Cosmonauts (Finland). Hailing from Norway is Steinar Karlsen, a fine player who instinctively understands the guitar music of the early ’60s. On his new album, Tur, Karlsen covers […]
Eddie Van Halen’s “brown sound” is, for many players, the Holy Grail of guitar tone. Featured on his band’s 1978, debut album, it continues to captivate listeners and amp builders, many of whom have taken on the challenge of re-creating it. The latest to try is SoCal’s own David Bray, with his Coco 50. Bray’s […]
The year 1977 saw upheaval in rock and roll, from the death of Elvis Presley and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash to the emergence of new music styles including disco, new wave, and punk rock. Propelled by simple, frenetic songs, punk renounced the self-indulgence of mainstream rock and put the world’s biggest bands on notice. At […]
Heavy Trash is an on-again-off-again band headed by Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray. They’ve released three superlative albums of their own trademark brand of rockabilly, all led by Verta-Ray’s incisive guitarwork – usually thanks to a well-traveled vintage Gibson ES-295. Verta-Ray is also the proprietor of NY Hed Studios, a retro-modern atelier blending vintage analog […]
