• Zac Schulze gets straight to it!

    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…

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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,…

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Gibson 1958-’60 Les Paul Standard

A ’Burst by Any Other Name…

One Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twelve. That’s the number of Les Paul Standards Gibson produced between 1958 and 1960. Amongst guitar collectors, it means there aren’t many seats in the “’Burst Club.”…

Bruce and Butter

It would be an understatement to say that REO Speedwagon bassist Bruce Hall and his 1965 Fender Jazz Bass, dubbed “Butter,” have been through a lot. Born and raised in…

Grammer Guitars

Photo: Kelsey Vaughn. Instrument courtesy Jason Davis. Grammer guitars, made in Nashville in the ’60s, are easily recognizable by their oversized pegheads, pickguards and bridges – not to mention the…

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…

Eastwood EEB-1 and EUB-1 Basses

Horizontal Vibe

Eastwood’s EEB-1 and the EUB-1 take their design inspiration from Ampeg’s quirky mid-’60s Horizontal Bass series, the brainchild of Dennis Kager, an amp technician and guitar specialist who worked for…

Gibson J-35

Gibson J-35

Dreadnought guitars originated as early as 1916 with instruments made by Martin and distributed by Ditson, followed in 1931 with guitars sold by Martin under its own brand. The first…

Fender Princeton, Deluxe, and Tremolux

Three Small Tweeds

Fender Princeton, Deluxe, and Tremolux

From 1954 through ’59, the Fender Electric Instrument Mfg. Co. built guitar amplifiers with controls mounted atop using “chickenhead” knobs that go to 12, and covered with “the finest airplane…

Classics: November 2023

Al Caiola’s Gretsch Prototype

Robby Zolezzi has been a touring pro guitarist since he was 18 years old, having taken up the instrument at 11, spurred by TV and movie themes played by Al Caiola emanating from…

Epiphone Coronet

Epiphone Coronet

This Epiphone Coronet from 1959 was probably a shocking sight to a guitar buyer of the late ’50s. Not only was a solidbody guitar out of character for the company…

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…

Vahdah Olcott-Bickford and the Martin Style 00-44G

Special Signature

Of the nearly 200 artists who have been granted a “signature” Martin guitar, only one was given their own style number. It wasn’t Clapton. It wasn’t Cash. Rather, it’s Vahdah…

Standel Amplifiers

Recapturing the Classic Sound

Contrary to what some fledgling vintage guitar and amplifier enthusiasts may think, amplifier brands other than Fender were made in California during the ’50s, the decade some consider the golden…

Sigma by Martin

Sigma by Martin

Following the Line

Long overlooked and relegated to an obscure corner of the collectible market, Sigma by Martin guitars have recently gained popularity among a new generation of collectors. If you’re one who…

Magnatone Amps

More Magnatone!

Introduction Part I What started out as a one-time pictorial on mother of toilet seat (MOTS) covered amplifiers has turned into a running Dickerson/Magnatone history, covering both the amps and…

Classics: December 2023

Cliff Antone’s 1952 Fender Precision

Texas is known for music, especially Austin, which in the mid ’70s became a hotbed thanks to clubs like Armadillo World Headquarters, Castle Creek, and Soap Creek Saloon, which mostly…

Fender’s First Reissues

The CBS Era Concludes in Style

By the late 1970s, cumulative changes in the details of the various classic guitar models on the market – Fender’s Stratocaster and Telecaster, and Gibson’s Les Paul – were so…

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…

Custom-Order Gibson B-45-12

The term “rare” is applied to guitars in far too many instances. Usually an appealing term, its overuse can be attributed in part to the fact it’s particularly catchy to…

Gibson ES-357

In June of 1984 trucks came to take most of the machines out of Gibson’s historic Kalamazoo, Michigan factory and move them down to Nashville, Tennessee. The End of an…

Fender Bass VI

Rare Miss Proves Leo Was Ahead of His Time

Fender broke new musical ground in late 1951 with the introduction of the Precision Bass. This archetype of amplified music’s bottom-end set the stage for rock and roll, and transformed…

Greg Martin honors Dickey Betts

Tribute licks Kentucky Headhunters co-founder Greg Martin was a senior in high school when he first heard the Allman Brothers Band “At Fillmore East.” Like so many guitarists, for Martin,…

“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…

Green Amps

Turning America Green

It hit Joel Wheeler in a flash of white light, a memory fried extra crispy into his brain. Just how you’d picture an epiphany to be, right? A random sentence…

SCOTTY MOORE's GIBSON ES-295 Vinatge guitar Magazine

Scotty Moore’s Gibson ES-295

First Guitar of Rock and Roll

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…

Classics: May 2022

“Wild” Jimmy Spruill’s ’66 Fender Jaguar

Wilbert Harrison’s 1959 version of Leiber and Stoller’s “Kansas City” shares space at the summit of all-time blues/pop classics, its guitar part ably handled by New York City session ace…

The Misadventures of Temple of Doom

Indiana Wright

The steel jaws of the trap had snapped shut. But events had spun so wildly out of control. And now, as Indiana Wright slipped from consciousness, he was not quite…

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…

Fender’s V-Front 5B4 Super-Amp

Wonder Wedge

Though all tweed Fender amps of the late ’40s and ’50s are lauded and lusted after, the V-front Super might be the most iconic – and elusive. So, when a…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Rock-And-Roll High School(er)

Building a From-Scratch Class Project, the Conclusion

In my November ’22 column, Ceil Thompson’s class-project guitar was nearing completion – the lacquer coats were applied and, after it cured for two weeks, she was ready for final…