Classic Instruments
Roy Smeck’s Gibson L-5
Player endorsements are part of the tradition of guitarmaking going back to its earliest use for public performance. LeRoy G.A. Schmeck, a.k.a. Roy Smeck,...
Classic Instruments
Familiar Names Create Music as J&B Brothers
The J&B Brothers make a sound equal parts Texas country, blues, folkie, rock, jazz, and soul – the spices that make music from the...
Classic Instruments
Freddie King’s Gibson ES-345 Keeps on Playin’
Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a notion... So, as soon...
Classic Instruments
Lloyd Loar
The Master Model instruments created at Gibson in the early 1920s are famous for their sound and build. Credit for their design is often...
Classic Instruments
1968 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Amplifier collectors swarm to models with descriptors like “first year” and “golden age,” but other types can be far more interesting; a transitional model...
Classic Instruments
Fender Custom Shop Marks 30 Years
In “official” terms, the Fender Custom Shop opened in 1987. But its story actually began February 1, 1985 – the day CBS announced the...
Classic Instruments
Vintage Instrument Research
Fretted instruments can be examined in much the same way as zoological taxonomist or forensic pathologist would approach them. They fit well into a...
Classic Instruments
Matchless JJ-30
Rare and sought-after, in part because only about 40 were built, the Matchless JJ-30 John Jorgenson is the only Signature Series amp ever made...
Classic Instruments
100 Years of Boston’s MFA
Musical instruments – guitars – present an interesting philosophical dichotomy. On one hand, they’re utilitarian objects whose very purpose – arguably their only purpose...
Classic Instruments
Mark Erlewine’s 40 Years with Willie Nelson’s Trigger
For a decade, Willie Nelson chased fame as a performer in the Nashville mold of the ’60s – hair coifed, striding to center stage...
