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Pete Prown
Adrian Legg
The Wizard of Strings
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
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Pete Prown
Effectrode Fire Bottle Magnetic Pickup Booster
The Box That Went to Harvard
The Effectrode Fire Bottle is a pedal that deviates from the norm and offers something fresh. Unlike a chorus, distortion, or phaser that delivers a definite “effect,” the Fire Bottle is a preamp that can fix and alter certain audio and level issues with your guitar’s tone. Its description as a “Magnetic Pickup Booster” may
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Pete Prown
Epiphone 1966 SG G-400 PRO
For Those About to Rock
Epiphone’s 1966 SG G-400 PRO Price: $582 (list); $349 (street) Info: www.epiphone.com Gibson’s SG is a classic design with plenty of great players behind it, from Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Jerry Garcia to Tony Iommi, Angus Young, and Mick Box of Uriah Heep, to name a few. The Limited Edition 1966 SG G-400 Pro
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Pete Prown
Airline ’59 Custom 1P and Epiphone ’61 Casino 50th Anniversary
Having a Rave-Up!
Fifteen years ago, you couldn’t give away some of the less-popular guitars from the ’60s, whether they were models with P-90s or cheapo imports from Japan and Germany. Today, however, they’re in hot demand, which explains a surge of reissues among these once-neglected planks. As evidence, we’ll look at the Airline ’59 Custom 1P and
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Pete Prown
Jas Obrecht
Blues Primordial
When did blues guitar begin? Many people think of Charley Patton, but in this book historian Jas Obrecht teaches us the idiom began long before that Delta legend – back to the turn of the century, if not further. The well-researched but highly accessible narrative breaks down prewar blues by looking at the pickers’ personal
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Pete Prown
Led Zeppelin
Zep Deluxe
Jimmy Page has been actively promoting these fresh reissues of the Led Zeppelin catalog and, in fact, they are rather impressive. There are CD and vinyl versions, each with a remastered original album and a companion disc of rarer material. We suspect you already know the Led Zep canon inside out, so let’s focus on
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Pete Prown
Jimi Hendrix
Into the New Rising Sun – Speculating on Jimi's Later Career Move's
It has been 40 years since the passing of Jimi Hendrix. In his honor, this month we will look at two unexplored aspects of his life and work, including the largely untapped oeuvre of Jimi’s later studio work – the period after 1968’s Electric Ladyland, when he was touring heavily but still recording countless hours
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Pete Prown
Peter Frampton
Perhaps no rocker in history was ever punished as severely as Peter Frampton. In 1976, he was the celebrated king of pop-rock thanks to Frampton Comes Alive, but after a weak followup and an appearance in the dreadful Sgt. Pepper’s movie, he was all but exiled from U.S. charts. Premonition was a minor comeback in
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Pete Prown
Fender’s Classic Player Strat HH
The Humbucker Paradox
Fender’s Classic Player Strat HH Price: $949.99 (list) Contact: www.fender.com One of the great guitar myths is that pro Fender players always use single-coil pickups. Many do, of course, but many have replaced those singles with noise-free humbuckers, whether full-sized units or others shrunk to fit Strat or Tele routs. Next time you’re at a
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Pete Prown
Electro-Harmonix Soul Food, Nano Big Muff
Add OD, To Taste
Price: Soul Food, $89.25 (list), $62.81 (street); Nano Big Muff, $95.64 (list), $69.80 (street) Info: www.ehx.com Guitarists have an insatiable desire for overdrive and distortion pedals, and manufacturers seem to be responding with more models every day. Two of the latest to roll out are the Soul Food and Nano Big Muff stompboxes from Electro-Harmonix.
