• Javier Batiz

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    Javier Batiz

    Mexican guitarist Javier Batiz, a teacher and inspiration to Carlos Santana and other musicians, passed away December 14 at his home in Tijuana, Baja California. He was 80. Known as the “Godfather of Mexican Rock,” “La Layenda” (The Legend) and other sobriquets, Batiz came to appreciate American blues guitarists such as B.B. King and John

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Seymour Duncan Sails Into VG Hall of Fame

Vintage Guitar today announced that Seymour Duncan has been inducted to its Hall of Fame. Each year, the magazine’s staff and readers select inductees in three categories – Player, Innovator,…

Freddie King’s Gibson ES-345 Keeps on Playin’

Family Ties

Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a notion… So, as soon as his tiny hands could fret…

Carl Verheyen

Riverboat Music

On his new album, Riverboat Sky, Carl Verheyen combines passionate musicality, spellbinding virtuosity, and ebullient rock and roll. It’s also a tone fest, as Verheyen morphs chicken-fried banjo rolls with…

Paul Quinn

Ramming It

As one of the leading bands of the early-’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, Saxon is responsible for offering up such headbanging anthems as “Wheels of Steel,” “Strong…

Fretprints: Jimi Hendrix

The Creation of Are You Experienced?

It was a bio-pic fantasy. The scene: Outside a London venue where Jimi Hendrix is performing for the first time. Leaving the club, Pete Townshend encounters Jeff Beck, just arriving.…

Don Felder

Don Felder

Six-Stringed Summer Stock

Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder is spending the summer with a few friends. On an extended tour with Styx and Foreigner in a package billed as The Soundtrack of Summer,…

Alan Gogoll

Harmonic Convergence

Hailing from the Australian island state of Tasmania, Alan Gogoll is reshaping acoustic guitar before our eyes. Sure, you’ve heard artificial harmonics, but Gogoll has refined it into a fluid…

Joe Bonamassa

Young Gun, Old Guitars

Joe Bonamassa. Asked whether he gets philosophical at the thought of turning 30 (his birthday was May 8), Joe Bonamassa is reluctant. Maybe because since before his 14th birthday, he…

Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams: Funky Syncopation

Fine pickin’ on “The Way You Make Me Feel” Husband-and-wife team Martin D-18, while Teresa comps on an Emmylou Harris L-200 that was a gift from

Justin Hayward

Prolificity and Perceptions

In addition to touring and recording with the legendary English band, Moody Blues lead guitarist/vocalist Hayward released his most recent solo album, Spirits of the Western Sky, in February. Such…

Mick Taylor’s ’58 Les Paul Standard

The Ya Ya’s Out!

Hard-edged face of the British Invasion, the Rolling Stones introduced the world to the implements, trappings, and accessories of rock-and-roll superstardom. With help from radio, television, and teen ’zines, the…

Andy Summers

Fresh Harmonics

Guitarist in the megastar band the Police, author, photographer, and solo artist Andy Summers can never be accused of having false modesty. His dedication to music led to being in…

Pop ’N Hiss: The Black Crowes’ Shake Your Money Maker

Hard To Handle

At the dawn of the ’90s, rock and roll was not in a good place. MTV had spurred a craze of dance videos and arena-rock acts, while shredders and hair-metalists…

Ana Patan’s funky “General Conspiracy”

“Live” from a Swedish forest From her home deep in a forest in Sweden, Ana Patan and her Framus Renegade perform “General Conspiracy,” the second track from her album, “Spice,…

Reeves Gabrels’ Newest Reverend Spacehawk

For his gig with The Cure, Reeves Gabrels needed a guitar that could cover a lot of sonic territory. The folks at Reverend helped him create the Spacehawk; the latest…

Eddie Clarke 1950-2018

We’re saddened to hear of the passing of “Fast Eddie” Clarke, guitarist in the classic lineup of Motörhead with Lemmy Kilmister and “Philthy” Phil Taylor, both of whom died in…

Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker

“Blue Mirror” jam from “The Weight of the World” Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker grabbed his pearl-front Zemaitis to show us a take on “Blue Mirror,” from his…

Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter

The Great Guitars of

Even the world’s greatest rock and roll showmen can’t monopolize the affections of the world’s youth without some help. Sorry, Alice Cooper. Sorry, Lou Reed. Yeah, they had help. Big…

Johnny Marr

Brit Gets a Git

When pop-music fans in the U.K. talk about guitar heroes, they tend to put more stake in the way a player’s work fits, contextually, into that of his band. To…

Ruyter Suys

Ruyter Suys

Loud and Proud

Nashville Pussy is fronted by the husband-and-wife team of Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys. Its new album, Up The Dosage, is the band’s first in five years, and it’s jammed…

John Brinkmann, 1937-2013

Pioneering Promoter of the Vintage-Guitar Market

John Brinkmann, an innovator of the guitar-show concept and pioneer in the vintage-guitar market, passed away October 8. He had been battling diabetes and a heart condition. Brinkmann was one…

Thom Douvan

Thom Douvan

Motown and More

Released in April, guitarist Thom Douvan’s third album, All Over Again, is a mix of self-penned instrumentals (with one notable exception) that utilizes a plethora of classic guitars to embellish…

Paul Gabriel Vintage Guitar magazine

Paul Gabriel

Rollin’ With Robillard

For Paul Gabriel, the opportunity to work with fellow guitarist Duke Robillard happened decades after they’d met and first played together, but Gabriel finally garnered Robillard’s production and playing services…

Richard Williams

Kansas’ Team Player

Unleashing pent-up creativity is a gratifying experience for a band, as Kansas guitarist Richard Williams can attest. The band known for the prog-/hard-rock hybrid exemplified by “Carry On Wayward Son”…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Dave Hunter

Season 03 Episode 07 In Episode 3.7 of Buy That Guitar, presented by Vintage Guitar magazine, host Ram Tuli is joined by renowned guitar historian and author, Dave Hunter. Dave…

Warner Hodges

Ahead of His Time, Two Times

Photo: Rusty Russell. Jason and The Scorchers hit the stage with bombast, conveyed true rock-and-roll punch in the studio, and was massively influential. But it never attained superstardom. The band’s post-/neo-rockabilly…

Greg Martin

Elder Statesman

Albums by Kentucky Headhunters have a history of making guitar players shake their collective heads at the great sounds made by Greg Martin. The band’s latest, On Safari, is another…

Charlie Baty

Through the course of almost 20 years on Alligator Records, Charlie Baty of Little Charlie and the Nightcats has proven himself to be a one of his generation’s best blues…

Julien Kasper

Non-Traditional Jazz

 Berklee School of Music guitar professor Julien Kasper isn’t fond of having his music called “fusion,” especially given the connotation it carries. “I’ve never liked hearing it used when describing…

Name that Twang

The Guild-Duane Eddy Connection

The fledgling Guild company scored a coup when it signed Johnny Smith to an endorsement deal in 1956. Perched atop the jazz-guitar scene at the time, Smith helped Guild join…