As a teenager who just wanted to play music, Norm Harris lived with the reality that he and his band weren’t going to be millionaires anytime soon. So he did what musicians do – side-hustled. But when most were manning the counter at a music shop or serving tables, Harris was up at the crack

Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies, then startling innovations. Perspective encircles the truth. So, how should we perceive the Yamaha SA-15? Japan became interested in guitars in the early 1920s, as some musicians there began to perform what we’d today call…

Greg Koch: Gristly “Blues” Greg Koch fearlessly wrings the sort of vibrato that only a Tele will tolerate from his ’53 to play this exclusive version of Freddie King’s “The Stumble” flavored with a bit of delay and running into his Tone King Royalist. Inspired by fan requests, it’s just one of the tracks culled…

The Show Must Go On
When Fender stepped up from the tweed-covered amps of the 1950s to the radically redesigned Tolex amps of the ’60s,…
The Super Jumbo 200 is Gibson’s most celebrated flat-top model, and deservedly so, thanks to its use by cowboy movie…

From Dartford to Sepulveda
The Vox brand may be quintessentially English, but it made a huge impact in the U.S. Riding in with the…

Fuzz Bonk
In 1965, fuzz was the “it” sound. Guitarists had recorded with fuzz before, of course, but after Keith Richards plugged…

Brown Sound
Gibson landing Les Paul’s name on the headstock of its debut solidbody electric in 1952 was the biggest guitar-star endorsement of its time. And, as was the way, an amp…

Truly Transitional
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, introduced in 1966, was a…

Un-Unplugged
For years, one of the most common jobs I’ve been asked to do is put a pickup in an acoustic guitar. Compared to most of my work, it’s pretty basic,…

Masked Marshall
When is a Marshall not a Marshall? When it’s a Park, of course! Though it might not scream “classic rock tone” for the guitarist masses, in the eyes and ears…

$10 at a time
In 1950, A.J. Custer traded his triple-neck steel for a white-guard Broadcaster. Total cost was around $300, which he paid in $10 installments over three years. Fifty years later, we…

Hilary Gardner returns! Ready to set the tone for your holidays, Hilary Gardner and her band return for a fantastic take on the classic Elvis hit “Blue Christmas” (written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson) just for VG followers! Accompanied again by Justin Poindexter and Sasha Papernik, this time they’re joined by Jen Hodge on…

Having looked at the most expensive electric guitars offered in 1960s – over 50 years ago. Traditional makers – Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch – concentrated on flashy amplified archtops that retailed up into the $700 to $800 range – beautiful instruments, but not representative of where the electric guitar was going. More forward-looking makers offered…

A Bat By Any Other Name
Much like the scant records of almost every large-scale American guitar manufacturer, production logs at Höfner’s headquarters in Hagenau, Germany,…

Fine pickin’ on “The Way You Make Me Feel” Husband-and-wife team Martin D-18, while Teresa comps on an Emmylou Harris…

AMP-O-RAMA
Until just a couple years ago, Fender really was the only major name in collectible vintage American-made tube guitar amplifiers.…

We’ve seen some pristine vintage pieces in these pages over the years, but as far as time-capsule amps go, when…

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…
They were days, before Kent State, when everywhere you looked, kids sat under trees, singin’ songs and swappin’ licks. Fresh-faced young girls with names like “Star” painted flowers on their cheeks and…

Genuine Lone Star Jams Dallas guy Rocky Athas built a career playing blues in the vain of T-Bone and SRV, but his new album, “Livin’ My Best Life,” is more…

Danny Gattons ’51 Nocaster
From learning a first lick to playing an entire song with friends, musicians thrive on motivations big and small. Growing up in Hempstead, New York, Bob Fener walked past Sam…

Vintage Blues, Vintage L-50 Direct from Ireland, 17-year-old Muireann Bradley indulges us (and tugs at our Led Zep heartstrings) with a rendition of Memphis Minnie’s “When the Levee Breaks.” She’s…

Late ’60s: Baldwin And Decline
In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and 11 for this special edition of…
A lifelong vintage-guitar nut who has had “a million guitars,” Jeremy Graf’s all-time favorite is this 1961 Stratocaster. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Graf was just seven when, for reasons he doesn’t remember, he asked for an Elvis Presley record. His mother obliged and brought home Elvis’ Golden Records, a compilation of ’50s hits. “That
In an era when the sub-20-watt combo is arguably the most popular guitar-amp format, it’s worth remembering that several classics of the category emanate from the ’50s. And just as interesting as the well-worn favorites, several lesser-known alternatives were also born in the decade of rock and roll. In the December ’24 issue, we examined
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
Despite their catalog-grade status, Supro amps have been used by several noteworthy guitarists. For many, the sturdy Thunderbolt is the preferred workhorse. It’s been a long time since Supro amps were any kind of secret find or hidden gem; players have long recognized the eccentric splendors of certain mid-sized examples, with their thumping tremolo and
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success came early and their lap steels set standards of quality, performance, and tone. On the other hand, the company’s electric bass viols and violins excited segments of the industry but never sold well. Same for
The word “underrated” is belabored in music journalism, but Joey Molland was just that. As co-guitarist in Badfinger, he was part of a quartet signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, yielding glorious AM hits like “Come and Get It,” “Day After Day,” and “No Matter What.” The foursome fell into obscurity and tragedy a few

Family Barn Jam! With his ’82 Gibson 335 running into a Headstrong Corduroy (20-watt/6V6) amp, McKinley James shares a taste of his new album, “Working Class Blues,” with this run at “Call Me Lonesome.” In the October issue, he tells us how the album was made in the family barn with the only backing…

Steve Cardenas and Jim Campilongo have been playing guitar together for a long time, though the constellations only recently aligned so they could record. Captured on three nights in September of 2022, New Year showcases harmonic personalities merging through atmosphere, reverb, and ancient acoustic guitars. It’s also a meditation on the beauty and strength of…

Prior to Gibson’s innovations, mandolins were bowl-back instruments with a lute-like back usually constructed with rosewood or maple back ribs…

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…

Roots Return
Most people know Hall & Oates as a pop-music hit machine that has sold millions of records. What you may…

The Art of Home Recording
Recording an acoustic guitar is very different from recording an electric, employing different microphones, placement, and technique. Here are a…