• Classics: Marc Schoenberger’s Rickenbacker Combo 600

    Classic Instruments

    Classics: Marc Schoenberger’s Rickenbacker Combo 600

    Marc Schoenberger was part of the early-’70s vanguard on the Southern California guitar scene – not as a gigging musician, but among the crowd that raced the 101 freeway to check out old guitars every time a new issue of the Recycler hit the streets. He’d also been repairing guitars for friends and local shops

    Read more >>

  • Samantha Fish: Slide-Blues Fury!

    Samantha Fish: Slide-Blues Fury!

    “I’m Done Runnin’” on a D-18 VG readers know Samantha Fish is the real deal. Here, she uses a Martin D-18 Modern Deluxe on an unplugged arrangement of “I’m Done Runnin’,” the ripping lead track from her new album, “Paper Doll.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!

  • Carvin DN440T

    Carvin DN440T

    One of the few family-owned guitar/amplifier manufacturing enterprises remaining in the industry, Carvin was founded by Lowell Kiesel in 1946 and started by making pickups, then transitioned to building lap steels and other stringed instruments. Some of the company’s early guitars and basses used parts from other guitar makers, but as its direct-to-consumer concept caught…

Marshall Amplifiers

From Birth to the 21st Century

April 11, 2018 · Edward B. Driscoll Jr.

From the first JTM to models for Clapton and Townshend, Jim Marshall has been building amps since the early 1960s.…

’53 Gibson Les Paul Junior

May 2, 2018 · George Gruhn

Gibson records say the Les Paul Junior was introduced in 1954. But this instrument has tone and volume pot codes…

100 Years of Boston’s MFA

Playable Exhibits

May 9, 2019 · Michael Wright

Musical instruments – guitars – present an interesting philosophical dichotomy. On one hand, they’re utilitarian objects whose very purpose –…

Wandré Modele Karak

November 2, 2017 · Michael Wright

We all recognize that guitars are art, but rarely has the instrument been as consciously approached from this perspective by…


Roy Smeck’s Gibson L-5

One For the “Wizard”

Player endorsements are part of the tradition of guitarmaking going back to its earliest use for public performance. LeRoy G.A. Schmeck, a.k.a. Roy Smeck, may be history’s most-prolific endorser of…

Tele of Two Legends

The Amazing Story of One Unique Fender

One day in the mid 1950s, up-and-coming thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker was playing host to his friend, bandleader Hank Penny, who had come calling with a special gift in a…

Sound City L/B 120 Mark IV

Sound City L/B 120 Mark IV

Preamp tubes: three ECC83 (12AX7), one ECC81 (12AT7, in the phase inverter) Output tubes: six EL34 Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Normal Volume, Brilliant Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence Output: approximately 120…

Steve Evans’ Guitars & Cars Passion Project

Pretty Pairs

Steve Evans was just 12 years old in 1968, when he began to appreciate the sleek bodies of electric guitars in the brochures he collected through the mail – gazing…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 3

Backbone Instruments 1962-’64

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled the first three installments for a special edition of VG…

  • Tyler Morris – 1963 Fender Stratocaster

    Tyler Morris – 1963 Fender Stratocaster

    Tyler Morris – 1963 Fender Stratocaster Tyler Morris guides us through his 1963 Fender Stratocaster in Fiesta Red. Follow Tyler at www.tylerdmorris.com!

  • Freddie Green

    Freddie Green

    Artistry in Rhythm

    Fellow musicians called him “Pep” or “Pepperhead.” He was also known as “Mr. Rhythm,” and he could drive a band like no other guitarist. His was a subtle yet unmistakable motivating and metronomic force. Others emulated his style and function, but Freddie Green was the archetype – the most famous rhythm guitarist in jazz. In…

Gibson’s “SG” Les Paul

Classic Shape That Filled Big Shoes

September 15, 2024 · Baker Rorick

In 1961, Gibson replaced the single-cutaway Les Paul with a new line of lighter, thinner, mahogany double-cut solidbodies. Developed under…

The Fender “High-Powered” Twin

May 15, 2024 · Dave Hunter

1958-’59 Fender Twin Preamp tubes: one 12AY7, two 12AX7 Output tubes: four 5881 (6L6 equivalents), fixed bias Rectifier: GZ34 (5AR4)…

Gibson’s First Reissue Les Pauls

Gibson’s First Reissue Les Pauls

On the Road to ’59

January 28, 2016 · Michael A. Slubowski

Strings and Things Les Paul Many articles have been written about how guitarists and dealers in the mid/late 1970s and…

The Hagstrom EDP46 DeLuxe

June 20, 2025 · Michael Wright

World War II was responsible for an unbelievable amount of what we today know as the modern world, from computers…


Zakk Wylde

Doomsayer

Best-known as Ozzy Osbourne’s longest-tenured guitarist, Zakk Wylde has also been the leader of Black Label Society since the late ’90s. With Ozzy off the road in 2021, Wylde has…

Martin OM-18 and 000-28

What makes these two Martins remarkable is not necessarily their rarity or historical importance, though both would be welcome additions to any serious collection. Martin has offered sunburst finishes as…

Vega Director Model A-60

Enticing Extras

A worthy vintage combo in all regards, there’s sad irony in the fact the Director Model A-60 is representative of the downward trajectory of Vega, the company founded in 1881…

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…

LYON_HEALY-HOME-MAIN-BIG

Lyon and Healy

So what is it? Its original black-finished spruce top is simply ladder-braced from within, but its back and sides feature Brazilian rosewood with dramatic bookmatched figure. Its unbound 18-fret fingerboard…

The Sebastian ‘Burst

Inspirational Icon

The mere mention of a Gibson Les Paul Standard made between 1958 and 1960 commands attention. But one like this, made famous in the hands of John Sebastian in the…

  • Ca. 1960 Custom Mosrite/Gretsch

    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 level. This custom Mosrite hollowbody has the chassis of an early Gretsch Country Gentleman and was likely built between 1959 and ’62 for a hotshot…

  • Hilary Gardner’s jazz/country connection

    Hilary Gardner’s jazz/country connection

    Classic sounds on “Silver on the Sage” Hilary Gardner and her band are devout fans of classic cowboy (and other types of) songs that they deliver with intimate arrangements. Here, they offer a take on the 1936 Leo Robin/Ralph Rainger track ,“Silver on the Sage,” just one of the fine tunes on her latest album,…

First-Rate Second Fiddles

Jimi’s Gibsons at the Hard Rock Cafe

April 3, 2019 · Jim Carlton

No two ways about it, as his career hit stride, Jimi Hendrix was a Strat guy. Not famously loyal to…

Popa Chubby’s Dangerous Attitude

November 23, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

NYC blues beast rips on “I Don’t Want Nobody A fixture in New York City blues joints and familiar face…

Fender “Wide-Panel” Twin

The Fender “Wide-Panel” Twin

June 29, 2016 · Dave Hunter

While Fender’s high-powered 5F8-A Twin of 1958-’60 (VG, March ’09) has been much raved about in recent years, there’s a…

Classics: December 2023

Cliff Antone’s 1952 Fender Precision

August 15, 2024 · Ward Meeker

Texas is known for music, especially Austin, which in the mid ’70s became a hotbed thanks to clubs like Armadillo…