We’re saddened to hear of the passing of Rick Derringer, legendary rock guitarist and songwriter known for playing classic collectibles. Watch for our memorial in the August issue, and here’s our in-depth interview with Derringer from 1998.
We’re saddened to hear of the passing of Rick Derringer, legendary rock guitarist and songwriter known for playing classic collectibles. Watch for our memorial in the August issue, and here’s our in-depth interview with Derringer from 1998.
Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies, then startling innovations. Perspective encircles the truth. So, how should we perceive the Yamaha SA-15? Japan became interested in guitars in the early 1920s, as some musicians there began to perform what we’d today call […]
Read more
Somewhere in the world right now, a Foreigner song is playing on the radio. Literally. Thanks to nearly 20 mega-hit singles, 75 million units sold, and legions of fans, the band has earned a solid place in pop-music history. Founder, guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer Mick Jones guided the group to dizzying heights from […]
Read more
Aside from witty asides on social issues, natural disasters, and Renaissance history, Adrian Legg’s formidable fingerstyle and deep musicality remain his calling card. His latest album, Dead Bankers, continues the bedazzlement. On “Marco’s Bounce,” you put a piece of foam under the strings to create a percussive effect. I owe the foam trick to [Brazilian […]
Few instruments are as synonymous with a genre as pedal steel and country music. But for a seemingly conservative style as country, steel guitarists are some of the most-sophisticated, adventurous musicians on the planet – from Buddy Emmons to Buddy Charleton to Paul Franklin and beyond. The “mystery instrument,” as Bobby Black calls it, evolved […]
The Tal Farlow is one guitar in a quartet of full-depth Gibson Artists models first cataloged in the early 1960s. Introduced in ’62, it was based on the ES-350 – the guitar Farlow used with Red Norvo and his own trio in the mid ’50s. A truly professional instrument, built in the tradition of ’50s Gibson […]
It wasn’t literally the first electric bass, but Fender’s Precision was the genesis of the instrument the world knows today. For more than seven decades, the four-string workhorse has been a favorite in the studio and on stages, and the story of modern music can’t be written without it. Fender’s American Vintage II line (VG, […]
For years, one of the most common jobs I’ve been asked to do is put a pickup in an acoustic guitar. Compared to most of my work, it’s pretty basic, and anyone with a modicum of DIY ability and proper tools could tackle even a modern acoustic-pickup system, which uses a piezo element under the […]
Paying homage to low-powered tube amps from yesteryear, the Supro Amulet was designed to re-create classic Supro sounds with a few added features. The Amulet is a 15-watt/Class A 1×10 with tube-driven reverb, tremolo and three-position attenuator for 15-, 5-, or 1-watt operation. Bass, Treble and Mids round out the EQ section, and there’s a […]
Longtime Tom Petty right-hand man Mike Campbell’s new album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, is a cinematic, guitar-heavy offering with irresistible hooks, gritty tales, and special guests. His third album as front man in Dirty Knobs, it recalls the hit-making craft of his past blended with the artistic resonance of superbly penned lyrics. You’ve been peeling […]
Retro Guitar MelodyBurner Price: $999 (options available) Info: www.melodyburner.com In the realm of hot-rodded cars, there’s a cool genre known as rat rods – old, relic’d automobiles that sport a lowdown vintage vibe. Meet the rat axe. Retro Guitar’s MelodyBurner is a similarly cool guitar that also bites as loud as it barks. This Junior-styled […]
Amptweaker’s TightFuzz and Bass TightFuzz Price: $280 retail/$199 street (TightFuzz); $310 retail, $219 street (Bass TightFuzz) Info: www.amptweaker.com. Since the birth of the fuzz pedal in 1960s, its scratchy, buzzy, sometimes “psychedelic” sound has freed the creativity of many guitar players. Now, the crew at Amptweaker is seeking to feed that creative “buzz” with its […]
Renowned folk singer/songwriter, musicologist, organizer, and political activist Pete Seeger died January 27 at a hospital in New York City. He was 94 and passed from natural causes. Seeger was born in 1919 to Charles Seeger, Jr. and his wife, Constance. Charles Seeger is credited with helping found the academic discipline of ethnomusicology in his […]
Like virtually every distortion pedal on the market, Walrus Audio’s Iron Horse Distortion V2 will produce enough distortion to molest anyone’s ears, but this box differentiates itself from the distorting herd with its versatility. Three updated controls allow the user to fine-tune the Level, Tone, and amount of Distortion. The V2 can provide just a […]
Built for the Beatles to use as a bass amp on their mid-’60s U.S. stadium tour, the Vox AC80 proved unreliable. When country music star Brad Paisley got his hands on one decades later, he loved its tone but also found it couldn’t keep up on tour. So, he asked friend (and longtime amp builder) […]
Denny Laine, best known for his affiliations with the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney and Wings, died December 5 after an extended battle with interstitial lung disease. He was 79. Raised in Birmingham, England, Laine was the founding guitarist of the Moody Blues and sang lead on the band’s first hit single, “Go Now,” which […]
Neoclassical shredder Vinnie Moore’s latest features vocals for the first time. Double Exposure is a heavy-rock record saturated with funky overtones and a high degree of guitarmanship. Joined by vocalists Keith Slack, Ed Terry, Mike DiMeo, and Brian Stephenson, the album is divided into half vocal and half instrumental; Moore stays on point for longtime […]
Chalk up another score for Italian innovation. Chicco Bellini and his company, Gurus Amps, are among the top dogs in the Italian gear market. They’ve also been gaining steam worldwide since the release of their most popular pedal, the Echosex 2, a few years ago. The SexydriveMkII is a reissue of Gurus’ first pedal, the […]
Playing the role of a lonely, heartbroken teen, Roy Orbison was the Enrico Caruso of early ’60s pop, his voice gracing more than a few torchy hits. “Oh Pretty Woman” from 1964 remains his greatest moment and it has a riff for the ages: the session featured multiple guitarists, but you can hear Roy at […]
Longtime musician and professional tool-and-die maker Don Thompson recently introduced the Tremor Bender, a retrofit stringbending device for most Fender- and Gibson-style instruments. Thompson’s goal was to make a stringbender that could be installed without drilling holes or doing irreversible modification. He also wanted to utilize an actuator that didn’t get in the way of […]
