The Thompson Tremor Bender
Longtime musician and professional tool-and-die maker Don Thompson recently introduced the Tremor Bender, a retrofit stringbending device for most Fender- and Gibson-style instruments.
Thompson’s goal...
Fender Mustang
Despite its short scale, the Mustang has a potent sound, and as a result it was used by many notable players.
Fender’s short-scale Mustang Bass,...
B.C. Rich Eagle
When my son was young I used to do “guitar shows” for his classes, showing off 10 or so electric guitars that started with...
Hanburt Electric Guitars
As a brand of American electric instruments, the name “Hanburt” is about the furthest thing from being a household term. Nevertheless, the recently documented...
Italian Smorgasbord
American guitars made in the 1950s and ’60s constitute an almost-holy canon, yet most players in that era took their first steps on imported...
Quest for Volume
Revolutionary jazz demanded a revolutionary jazz guitar. In the summer of 1935, just as his Quintette du Hot Club de France was starting to...
The ’66 Vox UL 730
Despite the massive lust for early “copper-panel” Vox AC30 and AC15 amplifiers, one JMI-made line is far rarer – the 1966 “UL” series. More...
The Travis Bean TB1000S Standard
Guitar history is littered with “better ideas,” some of which stayed around, went nowhere, or went somewhere before landing in the boneyard to be...
NGM Visits Texas
“It was born at the junction of form and function,” country guitar ace Bill Kirchen sings in “Hammer Of The Honky Tonk Gods.” And...
’66 Epiphone Casino
In the Epiphone line of the 1960s, the Casino occupied middle ground. In appearance as well as electronics it ranked well below the semi-hollow...