• Veillette-Citron Shark

    Classic Instruments

    Veillette-Citron Shark

    It’s not often a guitar can be said to have been inspired by a TV show, but that is the case with this 1982 Veillette-Citron Shark, which came about as a result of the success of the program “Welcome Back Kotter.” Well, in a pretty roundabout way, that is! Veillette-Citron guitars were the product of…

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Orville Gibson A model

All carved-top guitars and mandolins trace their ancestry back to Orville Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan. However, as this A model mandolin illustrates, Orville’s designs went through considerable refinement through the…

The Story of Melobar

Stand-Up Steel

Born in Northern California in 1920, Walt Smith took piano lessons and became a child prodigy on several instruments before developing a love of big-band music and Western swing. Chasing…

G&L SC-2

When is a Tele not a Tele?

When is a Tele not a Tele? Well, when it’s a Leo Fender-made SC-2, among other things. This is a neat guitar my favorite repairman, Doug Lawrance, found here in…

Classics: August 2021

Guild F-20 Troubadour and Dan Armstong Lucite

John Wiley couldn’t have known it then, but when his parents rewarded two years of applying himself to guitar lessons by giving him a brand-new Guild F-20 Troubadour in 1960,…

Peavey’s Razer, Mystic, and Foundation

Peavey’s Razer, Mystic, and Foundation

Contrasting Chronologies

Just a handful of years after Peavey turned the world of electric guitar upside-down with its T-60 guitar and T-40 bass, the company was feeling its oats. While the T…

Music Man’s Hybrid Boogie Amp: The RD-50

Say hey, fellow guitarists! If you live in the Northeast, it’s great to have a hobby that doesn’t require going outside. Two storms in five days of each other dumped…

Antique Guitar Amps 1928-1934

Which came first – electric guitar or amp?

The influence and restraints of technology on amplifying the guitar Let’s pretend for a moment that former Gibson historian Julius Bellson misinterpreted stories of Lloyd Loar’s experiments with electrified instruments…

Magnatone X-5 Zephyr

Last Gasp

Ever since Lonnie Mack unleashed The Wham of That Memphis Man and Buddy Holly sang “Peggy Sue,” Magnatone amplifiers have been the stuff of legend. Magnatone guitars, on the other…

Maccaferri History

The Guitars of Mario Maccaferri

Drop the name “Maccaferri” to most guitar buffs and more than likely the response will involve plastic guitars and, if you’re lucky, something about Django Reinhardt. For a lifetime’s devotion…

Ecco-Fonic

John Adomono was an American guitar hero of the Cold War years. JFK named him his favorite guitarist, and Adomono played a command performance at the White House. He performed…

Martin 00-42 Special

It has all the appoint-ments of a Martin 00-45, particularly the abalone pearl trim around all the borders of the body, but this guitar is entered into Martin’s books as…

The Koch Studiotone

No-Sweat Double-Duty

Koch Amplifier’s 20-watt Studiotone uses an all-tube circuit powered by a matched pair of Ruby EL84 tubes producing 20 watts and three 12AX7A preamp tubes. The Studiotone’s lightweight, compact (19…

1962 Premier E-727

One of the least un-derstood aspects of American guitar history is the role of musical instrument distributors. It’s one thing to be able to manufacture guitars, but quite another to…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Mending Chuck Panozzo’s 1960 ES-125

Thinline Revival

Like you, I got a kick out of the February “Classics” feature on Chuck Panozzo being reunited with his Gibson ES-125TC, which had suffered water damage and was literally coming…

Excelsior Americana

If you play any breed of twang, country, roots-rock or, well, “Americana,” could there possibly be a better amp than this? Okay, according to specs and tonal preferences, sure there…

The House of Stathopoulo Harp Guitar

Surreal Missing Link

One of the rarest Epiphone instruments in the world, the House of Stathopoulo harp guitar lends a glimpse into a transitional era prior to the formation of what would become…

Prodigal Sunburst

Joe Walsh Reunites with a ’59 Les Paul Standard

A master of delivering crystal-clear musical messages with an off-kilter wit, whether talking, singing, picking, or sliding on guitar, everything Joe Walsh does brings an undeniable charisma. For decades, Walsh…

Gibson’s Experimental Archtop

Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s. The Gibson company refined the design with the addition of f-holes in 1922, and brought the concept to full potential in…

Echoplex

Roots of Echo Part IV

For those of you checking out our Echoplex series for the first time (and regular readers, too), a brief glance back: Part I perused the groundbreaking use of echo by…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part One

There are many ways for an advertiser to attract attention, and in the history of 19th- and 20th-century print hucksterisim there have been few stones left unturned in the battle…

Fender Original Electric Bass Guitar

Fender Myth Debunked! (Part I)

Perhaps this essay should have been titled “Audiovox vs. The Piltdown Man,” due to the doubts had by myself and a number of others regarding the authenticity of this month’s…

1933 Gibson L-5 “Special”

Though many collectors focus on instruments in fine original condition, every so often one emerges that, regardless of condition, is no less exciting than a paleontologist finding the “missing link.”…

The Ovation Adamas II

What do you get when you cross a helicopter with a Martin dreadnought? Easy answer – Ovation guitars, perhaps the greatest champion of alternative materials in an age when traditional…

An Early Manuel Ramírez

This fascinating instrument from the shop of Manuel Ramírez ca. 1909 is unusual in that the complete history of the instrument is known to us, there having been only two…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend

What Goes Around…

I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I learned to play guitar during the folk boom that, for me, started with the Kingston Trio in 1959; their music led…

Hilary Gardner returns with a fresh take on a holiday classic!

Hilary Gardner returns! Ready to set the tone for your holidays, Hilary Gardner and her band return for a fantastic take on the classic Elvis hit “Blue Christmas” (written by Billy…

Martin 00-42 Special

It has all the appoint-ments of a Martin 00-45, particularly the abalone pearl trim around all the borders of the body, but this guitar is entered into Martin’s books as…

Fall Philly 2014

[caption id="attachment_19277" align="alignleft" width="300"] We are here at the Philly show checking out all the killer guitars! Here's a '54 Goldtop Les Paul, 59 TV Junior, '55 Junior, '59 Epiphone…

Höfner’s Fledermaus Gitarre

A Bat By Any Other Name

Much like the scant records of almost every large-scale American guitar manufacturer, production logs at Höfner’s headquarters in Hagenau, Germany, aren’t big on details. So when it comes to researching…

J.D. Simo

Playing for Elvis

Psych-blues guitar maestro J.D. Simo was the wizard behind the guitar work heard on Elvis, the new Baz Luhrmann film starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler. Unlike the actors who…