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Classic Instruments
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…
The Cost of Protection
100 Years of Instrument Cases
Modern guitars are typically sold with a hard case. But that wasn’t always so. Here, we look at the history of the relationship between cases, guitars, and those who’ve bought…
1912-’16 Manuel Ramírez Model 26
Manuel Ramírez was one of the most important makers of the Madrid school at the turn of the 20th century. His well-organized shop was staffed by talented makers such as…
The Fender “Korinacaster”
Double-Cut Kuriosity
There’s irony in the fact that Leo Fender, creator of the first solidbody electric guitar to be mass-produced, wasn’t the adventurous sort. Rather, history tells us he was a pragmatic,…
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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…
Peter Green
A Guitar For Greeny
Establishing the provenance of a vintage guitar can be a daunting task, even for a seasoned pro. In the case of one particular 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard, the investigation…
National Westwood and Glenwood
'60s Alt-Materials Make Short Run
Westwood 75 While the mantra for 21st century “alternative material” guitars focuses on carbon fiber (i.e. Rainsong acoustics) and wood/glass/carbon fiber/epoxy composites (i.e. Ken Parker’s Fly line), electric guitars made…
Univox Guitars
Merson/Unicord Part 1
Ca. 1974 or ’75 Univox Hi Flyer Mosrite copy with the later Univox see- through humbuckers. While most think of the history of American guitars in terms of American manufacturers,…
Ask Zac: Deep Dive on the Wide Range
Plus, Joey Molland’s Stratotone
I have collected several Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups from the early ’70s, and I’m curious about how to check whether they’re set to factory specs, and then how to…
Schecter Yngwie Malmsteen
1986 Schecter Yngwie Malmsteen For most of the 1970s I didn’t listen to or play electric guitar music of any kind, only acoustic music. I did, on occasion, read about…
Model 2020
Like most things, the closer you look at certain phenomena, the more you find often subtle, unexpected surprises. A good example is this Ibanez Model 2020, which dates from around…
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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…
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D.K. Harrell and His ’76 ES-335
B.B. King of the Blues Award winner plays “Liquor Stores and Legs” Winner of the B.B. King of the Blues Award, here D.K. Harrell and his ’76 Gibson ES-355, Christal, are going straight to his Lab Series L-5 for a stripped-down run through “Liquor Stores and Legs.” If you like uptown shuffles, relatable lyrics, and…
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Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”
Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from the typical blues player. A devotee of B.B. King (and others), he pays homage on a new album, “Iron City: Live in NYC,” by plugging two of his favorite guitars into the ’65 Guild Thunder…
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Kid Ramos’ Revelation!
West Coast legend melds blues with gospel Check out Kid Ramos using a ’56 Harmony H62 running through a vintage Fender reverb tank and a Pro Junior to play an improv jam. For the biker-curious, that’s his ’67 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide shovelhead “dresser,” which still wears its original paint and a couple of 1950 Cushman…
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…
Chris Butler’s Vox Mark VI: Waitress Server
Melding garage rock with glam, punk emerged in the early ’70s, set on stirring society’s pot. From New York to London, Dallas to Detroit, youthful contempt spurred the creation of…
An Odd Gibson EH-150
10 Strings, Lap-Style
Lap-steel guitars were the first commercially available electrics – ancestors of the guitars we plug in today, regardless of their shape. The popularity of Hawaiian music in the 1930s had…
Pandemic Peak?
The Guitar Market’s “Covid Surge”
In the September ’20 issue, VG surveyed guitar dealers to learn how they’d been impacted by the early weeks of the Covid 19 pandemic. Times were uncertain, and by March…
Jim Kelley FACS Reverb
Truly a deserving name in the early era of the “boutique” amp scene, Jim Kelley is also an extremely under-recognized one. After working at Music Man amplifiers and other jobs…
Premier Twin 12
Sometimes it takes just the slightest aesthetic twist to get an amp nut all worked up. This 1960 Premier Twin 12 is a case in point; over the years, Premier…
George Gruhn
How a Zoologist Became a Guitar animal
If you bumped into a bearded, corduroy-jacketed George Gruhn in a Nashville coffee shop, you might think you’d stumbled upon an avuncular college professor – which is fitting, considering that…
Star Board: Jared Scharff
“Saturday Night Live” staff guitarist Jared Scharff uses this custom pedalboard, built by Matt Brewster, 30th Street Guitars, New York City. “I’ve been using it for two or three years,”…
Gibson’s “blond” J-35
In the world of vintage guitars, people tend to use the words “blond” and “natural” interchangeably to describe a finish with no stain or pigment. However, in some cases, blond…
Robert Perine
How I helped Leo Fender
In all modesty, my role was small – especially in Leo’s eyes. Here was a man whose sole interest was making guitars and amps sound better, not worrying about the…
Vintage Instrument Research
An Ever-Changing Landscape
Fretted instruments can be examined in much the same way as zoological taxonomist or forensic pathologist would approach them. They fit well into a Linnaean taxonomic order, and in fact…
“Unicorn”: Ca. 1910 Rafael Casana
This extremely rare guitar has been dubbed the “Unicorn” by virtue of the fact that for all his fame, it may be the only surviving example of an instrument made…
Ibanez MC500 Musician
Ibanez MC500 Musician. Ahhh, the late 1970s… While many vintage guitar enthusiasts disdain the guitars from the “Me Decade” in favor of undeniably cool classics from the 1950s and ’60s,…
Gibson Super 400 PN
The Gibson Super 400 Premiere cutaway acoustic first appeared in Gibson literature in the 1940 catalog, on a page showing it and the L-5 Premiere in clear “natural” finish. The…
Jim Marshall
Father of the Mighty Marshall Stack
When it comes to guitar amplifiers, two names stand tall beyond the others: Leo Fender and Jim Marshall. Even
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…
Weissenborn Style#4
The acoustic Hawaiian guitar of Hermann Weissenborn is one of the most specialized instrument designs of the 20th century. Weissenborns were made for guitarists who played the newest craze of…
G.L. Stiles Solidbody
Every once in awhile, a guitar comes out of left field. In the case of this solidbody electric labeled “Lee Stiles,” the throw came from West Virginia by way of…
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…
United They Stood, Part 2
Ghosts of Jersey City
In the history of guitars, the tale of United Guitar Corporation is a ghost story – little documented and lost in partially self-imposed obscurity. Operating from 1939 into the late…
The Ray Butts EchoSonic
If you want to talk star-user ratio, the Ray Butts EchoSonic is near the top of the heap. Most accounts agree that fewer than 70 amps were ever made, yet…
