• Thomas Custom Guitars

    Classic Instruments

    Thomas Custom Guitars

    Rarities from the Pacific Northwest

    Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich tonal qualities. Thomas guitars, on the other hand, are usually noted for their odd (sometimes controversial) shapes and zany features. Built by the late guitarist/machinist/luthier/and

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  • Dan’s Guitar RX: A ’57 Strat Goes Under the Knife

    Dan’s Guitar RX: A ’57 Strat Goes Under the Knife

    Battle-Scarred

    B.K. Vaught recently walked into my shop with a vintage Strat that had been modified and refinished. While its changes represented a bit of American history, the guitar deserved to be restored. B.K. got it in the spring of 2022, while helping sort the estate of an uncle who had passed away. Among his belongings…

  • The Martin OM-28

    The Martin OM-28

    Although popular music of the 1920s featured the tenor banjo as the preferred rhythm instrument, the guitar’s popularity rose steadily through the decade, and by the ’30s, it had overtaken the banjo. As had been the case with tenor banjos, mandolins, and classical/minstrel banjos in earlier eras, the best-selling fretted instrument attracted the most attention…

The Leo Krebs Tape Echo Amplifier

Twenty-Three and Thee

July 7, 2022 · Dave Hunter

If you have no recollection of the revolutionary amplifier with 19 knobs, 23 tubes, and built-in tape echo created by…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 9

Late ’60s: Baldwin And Decline

February 21, 2018 · Peter Stuart Kohman

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…

The Duane Allman “Layla” Guitar?

A ’57 Gibson Les Paul Emerges To Tell a Story

March 7, 2018 · Ward Meeker

Taken in trade by a music store in Florida, it was sold to a local recording studio in 1977. Shortly…

Carson Creation

One Very Personal Stratocaster

May 9, 2023 · Willie G. Moseley

An itinerant Western-music guitarist who befriended Leo Fender and other employees at his up-and-coming company in the early ’50s, Bill…


National-Dobro 6107A

National-Dobro 6107A

Preamp tubes: 56, 57 Output tubes: two 2A3 Rectifier: 5Z3 Controls: Volume Output: 6 watts RMS +/- Speaker: one 10″ Lansing Model 112 Why doesn’t this ever happen to us?…

Watkins Rapier 33

If you were an American teenager in the late 1950s or early ’60s, and you wanted to play the new rock music, you likely did not have a solidbody electric…

Beyond the Parlor Part Three: Women

Beyond the Parlor

Part Three: Women

Ed. Note: In the final installment in his series on the guitar in 19-century America, Tim Brookes offers a study of several women who played the guitar, and what the instrument meant…

Booker White’s 1933 National Duolian

Hard Traveled

“Hard Rock.” That’s the name used by Mississippi blues man Booker White to christen his 1933 National Duolian. And Hard Rock was a hard-traveled guitar – much like White himself.…

Harp Legend Charlie Musselwhite

Stringin’ on “Blue Lounge” Harp legend Charlie Musselwhite has recorded and performed with a stunning array of guitarists in his band – Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Robben Ford, Junior Watson,…

  • Classics: February 2024

    Classics: February 2024

    Sean Slade’s 1964 SG Junior

    They might not seem to have a ton in common aside from first names. J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.’s co-founder and guitarist developed a style equal parts guitar heroics and left-side-of-the-dial insouciance. In Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar helped popularize the alt-country movement by merging influences from Doug Sahm to The Stooges. But that might be where…

  • ’72 Marshall “NARB” Tremolo 100

    ’72 Marshall “NARB” Tremolo 100

    Mirror Image

    When is a Marshall not a Marshall? When it’s a Narb, of course. Long a fascinating footnote to the company’s history, this alternative brand arose as something of a bet between colleagues. For all the undeniable classics produced by Jim Marshall and his right-hand men Ken Bran and Dudley Craven, it seems the company’s marketing…

George Gruhn

How a Zoologist Became a Guitar animal

May 15, 2024 · Louis R. Carlozo

If you bumped into a bearded, corduroy-jacketed George Gruhn in a Nashville coffee shop, you might think you’d stumbled upon…

Hard Rock Cafe

Guardians of Grandeur

The Men Who Tend to the Guitars of the Hard Rock Cafe

February 11, 2016 · Ward Meeker

“A lot of people think I go in [to a sale] with an open checkbook, but that’s not the case;…

The “Conversion” Les Paul

The “Conversion” Les Paul

Myth, Magic – and Mojo!

June 21, 2016 · Pete Prown

One of the more intriguing topics in guitardom is the Gibson Les Paul “conversion.” What is it? Most of the…

Magnatone X-5 Zephyr

Last Gasp

June 14, 2023 · Michael Wright

Ever since Lonnie Mack unleashed The Wham of That Memphis Man and Buddy Holly sang “Peggy Sue,” Magnatone amplifiers have…


Classics: September 2022

Danny Gatton’s ES-295

Glenn Holley was just five years old when he became infatuated with the sound of rockabilly music thanks to Elvis Presley. “By 10, I had more than 30 of his…

St. Moritz Stereo

The notion of a stereo guitar became almost implicit when guitars started having two pickups. But it didn’t become a reality on an actual production guitar until the great tapping…

GIBSON-F2-2-HOME-MAIN-BIG

1905 Gibson F-2

In the opinion of most American mandolinists, Gibson brought mandolin design to a level of perfection in 1922, with the introduction of the Master Model F-5. It wasn’t much earlier…

Gibson EH-150

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…

KayKraft Style A

Almost any guitar can be viewed in terms of a confluence of influences that produced it, from the company history to the history of guitar evolution to the kind of…

Standel 400S

In the early days of the American electric guitar/amplifier industry, Standel was known for building high-quality amplifiers used by the likes of Merle Travis and Joe Maphis. In fact, a…

  • “Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Howie Statland

    “Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Howie Statland

    “Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guest Howie Statland Season 01 Episode 10 In Episode 10 of VG’s “Buy That Guitar” podcast, host Ram Tuli is joined by Howie Statland of Rivington Guitars, New York City. They discuss famous players and the effect they have on the value of collectible instruments. Guitarists are often influenced…

  • Hangin’ with Kid and Lisa “Little Baby” Andersen

    Hangin’ with Kid and Lisa “Little Baby” Andersen

    Smooth, Funky Blues With Soul Kid Andersen worked with Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop before scoring his current gig with Rick Estrin & the Nightcats. One of the best blues guitarists around, here, he’s joined by his wife, Lisa, and bandmate Endre Tarczy to play “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” from his latest album, “Spirits.” Kid…

Ampeg Gemini II G-15

Ampeg Gemini II G-15

April 5, 2016 · Dave Hunter

Preamp tubes: three 12AX7, one 6CG7, one 7199. Output tubes: two 7868. Rectifier: solidstate Controls: volume, treble and bass on…

The Rogue VB-100 Violin Bass

Fab As It Looks?

April 29, 2020 · Pete Prown

The Rogue VB-100 Series II is an homage to the venerable Höfner 500/1 semi-hollowbody. Popularly known as the “Beatle bass,”…

Fender’s 6G9 Tremolux

Fender’s 6G9 Tremolux

March 23, 2016 · Dave Hunter

Preamp tubes: two 7025, two 12AX7 Output tubes: two 6BQ5/EL84 Rectifier: GZ34 Controls: Bright channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; Normal channel:…

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 6

1964: Nu-Sonics and Transistor Trials

February 7, 2018 · Peter Stuart Kohman

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled…