• Classics: Jeremy Graf’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster

    Classic Instruments

    Classics: Jeremy Graf’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster

    A lifelong vintage-guitar nut who has had “a million guitars,” Jeremy Graf’s all-time favorite is this 1961 Stratocaster. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Graf was just seven when, for reasons he doesn’t remember, he asked for an Elvis Presley record. His mother obliged and brought home Elvis’ Golden Records, a compilation of ’50s hits. “That

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  • Dave Murphy: Acoustic Country!

    Dave Murphy: Acoustic Country!

     Classic Ballad Style Country/folk/rock singer/guitarist Dave Murphy wrangled guitarist Chris Tarrow for this take on “Josephine,’ from Dave’s new album, “A Heart So Rare.” Dave is using a U.K.-made Atkin Guitars ’43 model, while Chris picks his 1935 Cromwell, which was made in Gibson’s factory during the Depression. Catch our review of the album.…

  • Round-Up Range

    Round-Up Range

    Rolling on a Post-Pandemic Project

    Five years ago, I started making a Tele-style guitar inspired by the Gretsch Roundup. When Covid hit, I was up to my ears in repair work and lost my shop help, so I was forced to put the project aside. But the time is now right to complete the build. 1) My creation has a…

Selmer Truvoice

Selectortone Automatic

May 24, 2021 · Dave Hunter

Selmer Truvoice Selectortone Automatic, ca. 1961 Preamp tubes: one ECC83, two EF86 Output tubes: two EL34, cathode-bias Rectifier: GZ34 Controls:…

Vox/Thomas Organ V-14 Super Beatle

Solid Sound

September 20, 2023 · Dave Hunter

After producing some of the most-iconic guitar amplifiers of the early 1960s, Vox leaned unwittingly into a failing technology –…

George Ducas: Modern Honky-Tonkin’

September 3, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Taste of “Long Way From Home” Singer/songwriter George Ducas is a Nashville traditionalist influenced by Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and…

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

Family Ties

May 29, 2019 · Ward Meeker

Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a…


Fender Custom Color Strat main

Custom-Color Stratocasters

The Stratocaster was born in 1954. A solidbody with three pickups, contoured back and top, vibrato, and bolt-on neck, it was different. And it changed the way people looked at,…

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,…

The Hagstrom EDP46 DeLuxe

World War II was responsible for an unbelievable amount of what we today know as the modern world, from computers to plastics. Even though there was a previous similarly named…

Supro Thunderbolt

Supro Thunderbolt

Designed “…exclusively for the electric Bass guitar,” it was simplicity itself, with no “fancy extra circuits.” But much like with Fender’s Bassman, guitarists had other ideas!

Fender’s Mid-’50s Precision Bass

The "In-Between" Version

In the world of electric basses, the 1952 Fender Precision is the one that started it all. While it’s true that Gibson, Rickenbacker, and Audiovox all built electric basses some…

  • Walter Becker’s Bogner Ecstasy 100B

    In 1993, when Bogner was fast becoming the hippest name on the high-gain-amp scene, star guitarists were clamoring for that hot new tone. One who missed out recently brought “his” amplifier home. Whether it was Fender’s tweed creations, early Marshalls, or the first generation of Mesa/Boogies, most revolutionary new amp designs have found stars lining…

  • Yamaha Weddington Custom

    Yamaha Weddington Custom

    A Better “Classic”

    In 1987, classic American guitars like the Les Paul and Stratocaster were still going strong, with few changes since their first appearance in the early ’50s. Thus it was a little cheeky when Yamaha tried to improve on these “dinosaurs” (as their ads put it), but the result was one of the company’s most-successful guitars,…

Watkins Scout

Merit Badge

July 9, 2019 · Dave Hunter

Watkins amps never landed big stars, or at least didn’t hold on to the endorsements of guitarists once they became…

One of Two of a Kind

Gibson’s L-3 Ganus Brothers Special

July 9, 2018 · George Gruhn

Making custom instruments has always been problematic for companies designed to manufacture in quantity. Though it had an unenforced policy…

The Clark Gainster

Trick Your Tweed

June 10, 2020 · Art Department

Before he got into the effects pedal biz, Michael Clark had a reputation for building killer tweed-inspired amps. In 2001…

Classics: August 2021

Guild F-20 Troubadour and Dan Armstong Lucite

April 4, 2022 · Ward Meeker

John Wiley couldn’t have known it then, but when his parents rewarded two years of applying himself to guitar lessons…


Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux, Part 2

Full House: Transcendent Jazz Masterpiece

In the November issue, we started to refurbish a doubleneck mandolin/guitar I made for Jerry Schafer in 1977. It needed a new wiring harness, tuners, binding repair, new frets, and…

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…

The Gibson ES-5

Instrument Profile

Gibson, like all American guitarmakers, had to shut down electric guitar production for three years during World War II. But when production resumed in 1946, Gibson made up for the…

Steve Wariner’s ’62 Fender Jazz Bass

An eye-popping collectible in its own right, this Olympic White ’62 Fender Jazz Bass scores a few points higher on the scale not only because it has been in the…

Molly Miller – top-flight instrumental rock, jazz, and twang

Trio rips on “2 West” Instrumental guitar music is having a moment. Offering a stellar example, Molly Miller and her trio show us “2 West,” filmed during soundcheck on their…

Wandré Modele Karak

We all recognize that guitars are art, but rarely has the instrument been as consciously approached from this perspective by the maker as with the ’60s creations of Wandré Pioli.

  • Classics: January 2024

    Classics: January 2024

    Bill Woodward's 1953 Gibson Les Paul

    Gravitational heavyweights in our culture, beyond baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie, few things say “American” more than music and road trips. This guitar is symbolic of both. One of the earliest Les Pauls, this ’53 was purchased new (along with a matching Les Paul amp, at Charles E. Wells Music Company) by Bill Woodard,…

  • Prototypes and Pathfinders

    Prototypes and Pathfinders

    Five Amps That Set the Tone – Or Hoped To

    Groundbreaking and undeniably collectible guitar amplifiers have made frequent appearances in this space over the years, but so have prototypes, limited runs, rare, or unusual examples that hold a fascination above the “standard.” Often, these rarities shined a light on the evolution of a deserving as a window into the thinking of their designers while…

Dallas Rangemaster and Scala Combos

Texas Two Step

May 9, 2023 · Dave Hunter

Fascinating also-rans, C-list classics, or both, the amps manufactured by London-based Dallas Music Ltd beginning in 1959 tie directly to…

Recording King Ray Whitley

April 16, 2015 · George Gruhn

As a maker of high-quality instruments, Gibson was hit hard by the onset of the Depression in the 1930s. Company…

Gretsch Country Gentleman

August 28, 2014 · Jim Hilmar

Consider American guitar manufacturers that have been in business during the last 100 years and the different instruments they’ve produced.…

Selmer Modele Jazz and Stimer M.10 Amp

Electricfying Early Jazz

March 6, 2015 · Michael Dregni

In the 1930s, the quest for volume was the Holy Grail of guitar construction, as guitarists sought instruments to slice…