Season 02 Episode 10 Episode 10 of “Buy That Guitar” features Chuck Mahar, of Mahar’s Vintage Guitars. With host Ram Tuli, he digs into historic amp brands that deliver the same magic and tone as the most-coveted vintage Fenders and Marshalls, but can be found at a fraction of the cost – from Gibson, Ampeg, […]
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The Redoubtable “Dot-Neck” Early every guitar conceived or designed by Ted McCarty during his tenure as president of Gibson (1948-’66) is today seen as exemplary of the company’s best work. McCarty, who launched the Les Paul model in 1952, followed with many more ideas that kept Gibson at the forefront of the industry, especially among […]
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Artists
Max Cavalera
Roots Revisited
To the casual fan, heavy metal can get a bit “same sounding” after a while. But then there are those rare albums that are undeniably unique. Case in point is Sepultura’s 1996 classic, Roots, which combined de-tuned riffing with Brazilian percussion, exotic instrumentation, and chanting. Two decades since its release, Max Cavalera looks back on […]
Classic Instruments
Vox Symphonic Bass
Fender Bender
Despite the way collectors and dealers freely apply the term “lawsuit guitars,” documented examples are few. One time it did happen was triggered by the Vox Symphonic Bass. A report in the June ’65 Musical Merchandise Review included the headline “Fender Files Infringement Suits” and detailed action in a federal district court with the defendant […]
VG Approved Gear
Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 FR E HSS
Ultimate Hod Rod
Designed more than 30 years ago, the latest incarnation of Charvel’s Pro-Mod So-Cal keeps the “super” in superstrat. An eye-catching, ergonomic guitar with alder body bolted to a U-shaped, oiled-maple neck with 12″ to 16″ radius, 25.5″ scale, compound-radius fretboard, and 22 jumbo frets, it also has an ebony fretboard with dot inlays, and other […]
Music
Ty Tabor
Shades
King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor’s 11th solo album is the follow-up to 2018’s Alien Beans. Ten tracks and three bonus songs tell the sonic saga of life, death, and the loss of a parent. But within the darkness, there is light as Tabor paints with an array of guitar tones, emotions, and melodies. Beatle-esque harmonies, […]
Artists
Have Guitar Will Travel 097 – Oliver Wood (the Wood Brothers)
In episode 97 of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” host James Patrick Regan speaks with Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers), who shares the story about how he and his brother, Chris, formed the band after moving from Atlanta to Nashville. Fans of non-traditional guitars, they used a ’50s Harmony Cremona and ’37 Gibson L-00 to […]
Music
Shooter Jennings, Ryan Bingham, and Various Artists
Outlaw: Celebrating The Music Of Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings, who died in 2002, would have turned 80 in 2017. He and compadre Willie Nelson still personify country’s early-’70s Outlaw movement, focused on gaining creative control of their records after years of letting Nashville producers call the shots brought only middling success. Given a chance to record their way, they finally found the […]
Artists
Julian Lage
Jazz Memoir
The latest from Julian Lage contains mesmerizing originals featuring Bill Frisell’s supple artistry and Lage’s potent six-string imagery. View With A Room is a dreamy record that transcends contemporary jazz-guitar techniques in favor of crafting altered states of consciousness. It’s a journey of the mind with gorgeous chord melodies that stands on the shoulders of […]
Classic Instruments
Lyon and Healy
So what is it? Its original black-finished spruce top is simply ladder-braced from within, but its back and sides feature Brazilian rosewood with dramatic bookmatched figure. Its unbound 18-fret fingerboard –also of rosewood – sports only a few small, round dots for position makers, yet intricate multicolored wood purfling graces much of the rest of […]
Music
The Rolling Stones
Blue & Lonesome
Mick Jagger’s famous 1968 statement – “What’s the point in listening to us doing ‘I’m A King Bee’ when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?” – has been a (sometimes) credo for the Rolling Stones. Why indeed? Except for the fact that the Stones have time and again proven they can indeed play the […]
Spotify
2021 September Issue on Spotify
This This month we feature Ray Benson’s Asleep at the Wheel, Neal Schon, Styx’s Tommy Shaw and James Young, Paul Gilbert, John Notto, Reverend Peyton, Earl Slick, Jimmy James, and Marc Bonilla, Rusty Young, Ronnie Montrose, Bruford, Julian Lage, John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, Styx, Peter Frampton, Paul Gilbert, Tommy Emmanuel, The Who, and many […]
Music
Cash Box Kings
Oscar’s Motel
For two decades, the Cash Box Kings have stood apart from the multitudes of “blues bands” that focus on bar-band rock, not actual blues. Inspired by the 1940s-’60s Chicago sounds of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter, the Kings stay true to the roots, even on original tunes. Singer/harmonica player Joe Nosek, vocalist Oscar […]
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
Rickenbacker 4005
California’s Rickenbacker guitar company has a tradition of things a bit differently. One of the earliest electric guitars was their “Frying Pan” solidbody Hawaiian. And the company’s 1930s Spanish and Hawaiian models were among the first electric guitars ever marketed. Rickenbacker has been family-owned since late 1953, when electronics parts distributor F.C. Hall bought the […]
Artists
Check This Action: Kent “Omar” Dykes
“I love the music, but it got so hard. Sometimes you’ve got to raise the white flag and go, ‘I gave it everything I had.’” Due to health issues, Kent Dykes, known to all as Omar, thought his career was over until LeRoi Brothers drummer Mike Buck and Bluebonnets guitarist Eve Monsees persuaded him to […]
Artists
Roman Bulakhov
Ukrainian Trailblazer
If there’s a 21st-century guitar style, Roman Bulakhov is a prime example, particularly how he fuses rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop – and everything else – into a radical stew. The music tumbles like an acrobat, with fast rhythmic and chordal changes, yet simmers with soulful grooves. With the Ukrainian war raging, Bulakhov is living in […]
Artists
Pop ’N Hiss: Robben Ford and Yellowjackets
Inside Story
In 1975, 24-year-old Robben Ford was making a name for himself on the Los Angeles music scene, where competition was fierce. As a blues-guitar prodigy, Ford had played behind Charlie Musselwhite and toured with Jimmy Witherspoon, but his life changed when he met Tom Scott of the L.A. Express, then replaced Larry Carlton in the […]
Classic Instruments
Peavey T-20
The Next Step
Introduced in 1982, Peavey’s T-20 was different from other basses in the Peavey lineup, the two-pickup T-40, and the single-pickup T-45. The T-40 (“Bass Space” October ’06) and its six-string sibling, the T-60, debuted as the first instruments to be made with parts carved using CNC machines, and their necks were bilaminated and pre-stressed. Their […]