• Tommy Castro

    Classic Instruments

    Tommy Castro

    Circling Back

    In a career spanning four decades, Tommy Castro has crafted a commendable catalog and built a devout following with his soul-infused music, informed by the blues, R&B, pop, and rock and delivered with conviction. Beloved for his guitar work and vocal style, he has carved his own niche. Born and raised in San Jose, California,…

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The Audiovox 736 Electric Bass and 936 Amp

Rare Pair

Eight decades ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer revealed the story of Paul H. Tutmarc debuting his latest invention – a solidbody electric bass. The 1935 article includes a photograph showing the…

Kangaroo Amp Covers

Anti-Aging for Amps

Kangaroo Amp Covers Once upon a time, Steve Purcell, proprietor of Kangaroo Amp Covers, grew weary of being the forgetful type. As a gigging guitarist, he never had a problem…

Epihone Deluxe Archtop

Head-On With the L-5

Webster’s latest defines the word “deluxe” as “…notably luxurious, elegant, or expensive.” The Epiphone Deluxe archtop guitar was certainly luxurious. When introduced in 1931, it sported a triple-bound top with…

Teisco Guitars, Part I

Rock 'n' Roll Dreams, Part I

Few non-American guitar brands have meant so much to so many American guitar buffs as Teisco guitars. Indeed, through their mid-’60s connection with the Sears and Roebuck company, many a…

The Coulter Company

The Coulter Company

More Rarities from the Pacific Northwest

The eye-catching and technologically innovative stringed instruments created by Frank Evans Coulter in the early 20th century are so exceedingly scarce that few guitar enthusiasts have laid eyes on one.…

John Sebastian & Arlen Roth

Reimagine the Lovin’ Spoonful

In the ’60s, the Lovin’ Spoonful boasted one of the most impressive song catalogs in rock and roll. During the age of psychedelia and college courses examining the Beatles and…

McKinley James’ Blues

 Family Barn Jam! With his ’82 Gibson 335 running into a Headstrong Corduroy (20-watt/6V6) amp, McKinley James shares a taste of his new album, “Working Class Blues,” with this…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Steve “Frog” Forgey

Season 03 Episode 04 In Episode 3.4 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Steve “Frog” Forgey of Elderly Instruments. Forgey has been at Elderly Instruments since…

Kendrick 2210

Big things come in small packages

The shipping box reads “Delicate Instrument,” but don’t let that fool you. The Kendrick 2210 is delicate in same way that a surgical scalpel or nitro glycerine are. With explosive…

Paul Bigsby’s Myrtlewood Guitars

= Few things are as satisfying as a guitar with a good story to tell. Some vintage guitars might be beautiful and/or valuable, but boring as Paris Hilton – the…

B.C. Rich Stealth

1983 B.C. Stealth Bass prototype, serial number 001-87984. Photo courtesy Richie King. Electric guitar lore from the 1980s almost invariably includes (sometimes snide) references to hair bands, pointy headstocks, black…

Tony Nobles Resonator

Museum-Bound Resonator

This guitar is a special project built after I was approached by the new Braunfels (Texas) Museum of Art and Music to show a guitar in an exhibit of Texas…

Veleno Guitars

Shiny Metal (Rare) Birds

Throughout the years luthiers have built guitars out of a lot of exotic materials, from Torres’ paper mache acoustics to Danelectro’s masonite to Dan Armstrong’s lucite guitars to Steinberger’s all-graphite…

The History of Hamer

High-End Boutique or Budget Vintage?

“We didn’t quite get it,” explains company cofounder Jol Dantzig, discussing the birth of Hamer Guitars. “It was kind of a mistake. When we created Hamer, we created the high-end…

The Watkins Dominator

Crying V

Is there any more stylish vintage amp than the V-front Watkins Dominator? This creation is delightfully twee yet utterly enticing – the allure of its blue-and-cream Rexine covering, gold-threaded grillecloth,…

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…

Martin Elegant, a.k.a. “Lula”

It’s an extraordinarily rare event to find a high-grade, historically significant mid-1800s guitar in a pawn shop, but that is indeed where this Martin was discovered. When found in Nashville…

Recording Electric Guitars

The Art of Home Recording

The process might seem simple – stick mic in front of amp, press "Record." Truth is, though, that even just one guitar and amp can render results that vary greatly.…

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,…

Tom Petersson’s Gretsch 12-string Basses

Tricked-Out Trio

Cheap Trick fans are aware of his contribution to the band’s songs, but few know he actually invented the 12-string electric bass and has been using one since 1977 to…

Ram Tuli Crunches Numbers for The Guide

Strats and Data

Combine a knack for numbers with a love of old guitars and you get… well, you might get any of a thousand babyboomer accountants/collectors. But one is a supercharged version…

Wah-Wah Pedals

An Evaluation of Effects and Pedals

The idea for this article came about when I purchased a box of effects pedals from the owner of a music store which had closed in the late seventies. Most…

Kramer Aluminum-Neck Basses

When it entered the music-instrument market in 1976, Kramer Guitars made a big splash with an aggressive marketing campaign, big-name endorsers, and – most importantly – an improved approach to…

Classics: March 2022

Chris Leuzinger’s 1952 Gibson Les Paul

If your radio was tuned to a country station even for a few minutes anytime in the last 30 years, odds are you’ve heard Chris Leuzinger’s 1952 Les Paul. A…

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.

Cry, Baby!

The Story of the Vox Wah

Beyond being crowned “Album of the Century” by Time magazine, Marley and the Wailers’ 1977 LP Exodus is a wah-wah masterpiece thanks to Junior Marvin and his Thomas Organ Cry…

Standard in Custom

Schecter’s Custom Shop Marks 35 Years

Riding high after 35 years with an array of original instruments, an impressive artist roster that started early with Pete Townshend and Mark Knopfler, and a line of high-gain amplifiers,…

Martin Bodies in the 19th Century

Size matters

Exactly when did C.F. Martin begin formally using the two-part system indicating size and level of ornamentation on his instruments? Nobody knows for certain. Martin was thinking along these lines…

Easy Pickins

The Fine Art of Pick Collecting

You collect guitar picks? Is this a joke? Umm, no…and in a world where books are dedicated to the collectibility of happy meal toys, why should an interest in guitar…

D’Angelico Excel Plectrum Guitar

Superb Build, Sound Worthy of a Listen

John D’Angelico is widely regarded as one of the finest archtop guitar builders who ever lived. From 1932, when he started making guitars on his own, until his death in…