• The Electra Endorser

    Classic Instruments

    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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NGM Visits Texas

Nearing Permanent Home, Museum Honors Raitt

“It was born at the junction of form and function,” country guitar ace Bill Kirchen sings in “Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods.” And though he was referring to the…

Silver Lining

Gibson and the Master Models

Recognized today as visionary, when introduced in 1922, Gibson’s Master Model L-5 and F-5 were expensive to produce and lacked a market. For a time, they placed a considerable burden…

National Model N-720

Star of an Era's End

Most acoustic guitar players will likely show disdain for any instrument with a bolt-on neck. Even though there have been many great guitars – from Maccaferri (and before) to Seagull…

The Gretsch 6120 Tenor

This 1958 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 four-string tenor guitar is a very rare variation of the model. Gretsch built other tenors, including the Duo Jet, archtop acoustic, and archtop electric…

Classics – March 2021

Scarce and beautiful, Gibson’s Flying V was an ahead-of-its-time marketing failure when introduced in 1958. Made of exotic limba (a mahogany cousin from Africa trademarked in the U.S. as “Korina”)…

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…

Star Board: Carl Verheyen

In each issue of “Signal Chain,” we’ll take a guided tour of pro players’ pedalboards. We’re calling the feature “Star Board,” and we kick it off in this issue with…

The Gretsch 6169 Electromatic Twin Western

What good was selling a newfangled electric guitar back at the dawn of the revolution if you didn’t have an electric guitar amplifier to go along with it? Any significant…

Wolf Strat

A Legend’s Guitar, Discovered

After possessing it for several years, curiosity finally got the best of the owner of this 1963 Stratocaster. He had to know: Who is Lil’Bill?

The Epiphone Devon Tremolo EA-35T Combo

Tonally TransAtlantic

After giving the upstart Fender a run for its money in the amplifier department throughout the 1950s, Gibson segued into something that looked like surrender; by the early ’60s, its…

Geddy Lee

Bass Conservator

In its 40-plus years, Rush evolved on its own terms. Mixing rock and jazz influences, the band’s 19 studio albums fostered a cultish fan base of prog-rockers, headbangers, and others…

Ca. 1960 Custom Mosrite/Gretsch

A Bakersfield/Brooklyn Cowboy

In the history of vintage guitars, Gretsch and Mosrite are sometimes linked, and often associated with ’50s hot-country pickers and ’60s rockers. One guitar takes that connection to a new…

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…

Dumble Overdrive Special OD150 WR

Alexander Dumble’s creations were already established as legendary when we probed our first example in this space back in May of 2011. Since that time, however, Dumbles have become the…

Gibson Nick Lucas

It’s a rare occasion when a star performer hooks up with a guitar company to create a classic signature instrument. Gibson’s Les Paul model comes to mind, as does Gretsch’s…

Selmer Modele Jazz and Stimer M.10 Amp

Electricfying Early Jazz

In the 1930s, the quest for volume was the Holy Grail of guitar construction, as guitarists sought instruments to slice through the sound and fury of a jazz band. And…

Six-String Kicks

Six-String Kicks

Wood from Famed Bowling Alley Set to Sing

Few things scratch America’s cumulative itch for nostalgia like Route 66 – the famed wagon-trail-cum-highway that offered passage to those migrating west from Chicago in the mid 19th century, then…

Gibson Custom Colors in the 1960s

Burning Embers, Chilled Whites

Unlike its rival from the West Coast, Gibson did not readily embrace the concept of offering custom-color finishes. It wasn’t averse to custom work or colorful finishes, but saw them…

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…

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Neal Shelton

“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Neal Shelton Season 01 Episode 06 In Episode 6 of “Buy That Guitar” presented by Vintage Guitar mag, host Ram Tuli is joined…

VG Q&A: ’71 Mahogany Precision?

Plus, a ’60s Conrad 12-String and Converting a ’65 ES-345TD-SV to Mono

I have a Fender Precision Bass with a 1971 neck date and serial number 296XXX, and I’ve always suspected the body was mahogany rather than the typical ash or alder.…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 9

Late ’60s: Baldwin And Decline

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and 11 for this special edition of…

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…

Gibson’s Mastertone Banjos

Gibson’s Mastertone Banjos

This Gibson RB-3 five-string from 1925 is a rare piece, as is any five-string banjo from the era dominated by tenor banjos. But it’s more important as a representative of…

1967 EKO Condor

1967 EKO Condor The Summer of Love. Hippies, flower power, psychedelic drugs. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and feelin’ groovy. 1967 was a heady time for a lot of…

Fender Prototypes

Gone… And Forgotten

Philip Kubicki has been active in the music industry for over 30 years. He began building acoustic guitars at age 15. At 19, he was one of the first employees…

Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+

The Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+

Early Mesa/Boogie Mark Series amps were something of a sensation, but even with the line now having stretched all the way to the massively featured Mark V, many fans of…

First Guitar of Rock and Roll

Scotty Moore’s Gibson ES-295

Like a hound dog hit by lightning, the first notes of rock and roll blasted out of radios across the country in July of 1954, courtesy of Elvis Presley’s supercharged-hillbilly…

JMI Vox AC15 “Two-Tone” 1×12″

TV Star

The permutations of early Vox models remain endlessly fascinating to vintage-amp enthusiasts, and few get us as worked up as a rare transitional version of the hallowed AC15. The “TV-front”…

The Original ES-150

How Gisbson Won The ES War

The story of the ES-150, Gibson’s first commercially successful electric guitar, has been told many times, and its association with legendary jazz pioneer Charlie Christian is a staple of the…