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Classic Instruments
Zac Schulze gets straight to it!
If you’re a fan of Cream, Zeppelin, and Rory Gallagher (who isn’t?), you’ll dig Zac Schulze Gang, a British power trio that’s carrying the torch with both hands; they’ve played Clapton’s Crossroads and the Rory Gallagher Tribute Fest. Here, Zac flies solo on “High Roller,” tearin’ it up on his ’54 Guild Aristocrat M75 through…
Univox Uni–Fuzz & Super–Fuzz
Full, Fat Fuzzzy
Pete Townshend sent many a guitar and amp to an early grave. But there’s no known evidence of him doing the same with effects pedals. Never mind that spearing a…
Gibson Electric Uke
By Request of Arthur Godfrey
Ted McCarty, Gibson’s president from 1948 to ’66, was responsible for some of Gibson’s greatest designs. While McCarty cites the Les Paul Model as his most important design, his other…
Steve Vai
Relentless Explorer
More than 40 years into his career, Steve Vai is still pushing himself as a musician and exploring the boundaries of the guitar. A new custom, multi-neck Ibanez called The…
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Jon Butcher’s psychedelia mastery
Jon Butcher tales his Olympic White ’63 Strat for a rip on “Jam,” a track from his new album, “Nuthin’ but Soul.” The disc is an homage to sounds of Motown, Stax, James Brown, and Sly Stone highlighted by Butcher’s mastery of Hendrix-style psychedelia. It was recorded using a ’63 Princeton, a Vibrolux, and a…
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The Electra Endorser
Flame-top guitars were fairly common during the 1970s “copy era,” but few reached the levels of figure we often see on modern high-end guitars. Then came the Electra Endorser X935CS, which set new standards for psychedelic woodgrain. “But it’s not a ’70s guitar,” you object. No, but arguably, the Endorser CS – which was only…
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Webb Wilder’s take on “Beautiful Delilah”
“Hillbilly Speedball” sample Since the mid ’80s, Webb Wilder has cranked out consistently fine roots-rock. His latest is “Hillbilly Speedball,” and here he grabs his ’61 Gibson ES-330TD plugged into a narrow-panel Fender Vibrolux to play a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah.” He’s joined by George Bradfute (on a ’50s Epiphone upright) and Bob…
Built to Survive
Gibson and Montgomery Ward in the Great Depression
In our nation’s darkest economic times, one of its most-revered guitar manufacturers was treading headlong toward extinction before an unlikely hero started placing big orders.
The Acoustic
Black Widow
In the late ’60s, when Domino guitars were fading away, tube amplifiers were out of vogue. Old technology, man! Cool bands played through solidstate amps that delivered lots of clean…
National Westwood
Whether Valco – the company that made National guitars in the 1950s and ’60s – was actually inspired by U.S. geography when it created its legendary “map” guitars is unknown,…
Gibson Basses in The ’70s
Plucky Trio from the “Downer Decade”
Guitar enthusiasts have long heard that the 1970s were the “downer decade” for Fender and Gibson, both of which introduced a few duds and struggled with quality control. Their travails…
Fender Jazzmaster
Caught in the Surf
A 1965 Fender Jazzmaster in Surf Green. Photo: VG Archive. In the midst of its scramble to compete with Fender by developing the radical Flying V and Explorer guitars, Gibson likely…
Kalamazoo KG-1
Collectible value in guitars can be defined any number of ways, and not just by having a popular brand name such as Fender or Gibson. That’s certainly the case with…
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Jorge Garcia’s FM Anthems, in Jazz
Fresh takes on revered classics Joge Garcia’s “Still Crossing” is a collection of stellar instrumental performances of familiar tunes like “Kashmir,” “Little Wing,” and a classical spin through Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” Here, though, he shows us the title track, which is the only original tune. His ’87 Fender D’Aquisto is plugged into a…
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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 a good setup. With teammates Ceil Thompson and Gene Imbody sharing the load, we continued the work. 1) Gene – our go-to guy for tough…
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The Guitars of Gary Rossington
A Legend’s Legacy
When the time came for Gary Rossington’s family to decide what to do with his guitars and amps after his passing in March of 2023, daughters Mary and Annie along with his wife, Dale, looked for advice from his lifelong friend and bandmate, Rickey Medlocke. The stash was considerable – 71 guitars including his famous…
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Wes Beech
Life in The Plasmatics
From the moment he met Rod Swenson and Wendy O. Williams, things for Wes Beech were never really “normal.” Walking into the basement of their loft for an audition, Beech didn’t know he was about to become part of a stage-storming, car-smashing, guitar-chainsawing artistic statement called the Plasmatics. The product of Swenson’s high-functioning mind (if…
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Classics: Mike Semrad’s ’57 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Mike Semrad’s musical roots run deep in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska – at least as far back as his great-grandmother, who sang at the city’s opera house. But his first glimpse into the true power of music happened in high school, when one night in 1962, overachieving pep-band director Bob Olson stirred things up…
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Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker
Basement Jams & Blown Speakers
1966 Heathkit TA-16 Starmaker Combo The days when a kid would break out the soldering iron and take on a serious electronics project just for fun are largely behind us. Back in the ’60s, though, that’s how many an aspiring musician acquired his own precious guitar amplifier, as was the case with this Heathkit TA-16…
Holman Guitars
From Kansas… to Oz?
1966-67 Holman Classic, same body as the Wurlitzer Cougar. Whether or not you think they’re from Oz probably depends on your tastes, but one thing’s for certain – they’re not…
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…
Gibson K-5 Mandocello
The violin-style f-holes of Gibson’s F-5 mandolin, L-5 guitar, and other Style 5 instruments, are the most famous and most significant elements of Lloyd Loar’s legacy as the designer of…
Gibson’s “SG” Les Paul
Classic Shape That Filled Big Shoes
In 1961, Gibson replaced the single-cutaway Les Paul with a new line of lighter, thinner, mahogany double-cut solidbodies. Developed under the aegis of Ted McCarty and introduced as the “new…
Rickenbacker 4005
California’s Rickenbacker guitar company has a tradition of things a bit differently. One of the earliest electric guitars was their “Frying Pan” solidbody Hawaiian. And the company’s 1930s Spanish and…
The Fender Stratocaster
Aiming High
In 1953, Leo Fender started planning a new standard guitar – the Stratocaster. His partner, Don Randall, who headed Fender Sales, Inc., came up with the name before the design…
Audiovox #736
The World's First Electric Bass Guitar!
While there have been lively debates raging in the rare instrument community for many years about any number of puzzling early guitars – not to mention the perennial issue of…
Weymann Model 848
Mail-Order Rara Avis
From 1864 through the 1940s, H.A. Weymann and Son, Inc. made, imported, and sold marching band, orchestral, percussion, and other instruments through its own mail-order catalog. Heinrich “Henry” Arnold Weymann…
Tim Scheerhorn Dobro
"New School"
The list of folks who use Tim Scheerhorn’s guitars reads like a who’s who of resonator and slide guitarists. Jerry Douglas, Mike Auldridge, Sally VanMeter, Rob Ickes, Ben Harper, Phil…
Gibson Super Jumbo 100
The Super Jumbo 200 is Gibson’s most celebrated flat-top model, and deservedly so, thanks to its use by cowboy movie stars in the pre-World War II years and by country…
Songbirds: Museum with a Mission
Treasures in Tennessee
Ask anyone who geeks out on vintage guitars, from the well-heeled collector to the dreamer whose prized possession is a relic’d reissue, and you’ll hear the stories… First sighting of…
Gretsch Country Gent #1
The Gretsch Country Gentleman 6122 was the third of four Chet Atkins signature guitar models created for the legendary guitarist in the ’50s. The little-known truth is it was also…
Fender Precision Elite II
Sleeper Axe, Gorgeous Finish
If you could only see the beautiful hue of this Precision Elite II finished in Sienna Burst, you’d melt. Arguably the most devastating of Fender’s bursts, this finish was made…
Martin 0-28K
The exotic figuration of Hawaiian koa wood on this Martin 0-28K from 1923 has a visual appeal that matched the exotic sound of Hawaiian music in the 1920s, and koa…
Gibson GA-83S Stereo-Vib
If you hung around the audio world’s collective R&D room long enough in the late 1950s and early ’60s, you’d have thought that, very soon, everything would be happening in…
Danelectro Viscount
1961 Danelectro Viscount Preamp tubes: two 12AX7, one 6AU6 Output tubes: two 6V6GT Rectifier: 6X5 Controls: Volume, Tone, Vibrato Strength, Vibrato Speed Output: 12 watts RMS Amp nuts of yesteryear…
Benson Model 300H
Wrecking Ball
Even with all the excellent guitar amps available by the late ’60s, nothing was quite good enough for jazz and studio great Howard Roberts – so he co-designed his own.…
Ovation Solidbody Guitars
No matter how hard they tried…
Acurious phenomenon that ac-companies certain guitar compa-nies is an inability to translate success from one medium to another. For instance, Martin has never been able to transfer its reputation for…
Classics: June 2022
David Hood’s Alembic Bass
Like the engineers and musicians who, in the ’60s and ’70s, helped create legendary songs at FAME Studios and its offshoot, Muscle Shoals Sound, Frank Manno is a diehard music…
Yamaha SA-15
Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies, then startling innovations. Perspective encircles the truth. So, how should…
Hallmark Swept Wing Semi-Hollow
1967 Hallmark Swept Wing semi-hollow bass, serial #003127. Photo: Michael G. Stewart. Instrument and image courtesy of Bob Shade. The murky history of guitar brands and builders from the Bakersfield…
