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Classic Instruments
The Doobie Brothers
Road Rules
If you’re making a list of beloved bands with a long string of hook-heavy hits, the Doobie Brothers will surely be on it. Their new album, Walk This Road, features the creative core of vocalist/guitarist Patrick Simmons, vocalist/guitarist Tom Johnston, multi-instrumentalist John McFee, and vocalist/keyboardist Michael McDonald. The news of Walk This Road generated significant
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JMI Vox AC15 “Two-Tone” 1×12″
TV Star
The permutations of early Vox models remain endlessly fascinating to vintage-amp enthusiasts, and few get us as worked up as a rare transitional version of the hallowed AC15. The “TV-front” designation is more often applied to tweed Fender combos of the late ’40s and early ’50s, but when we hear it in connection with a…
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Weymann Model 890 Jimmie Rodgers Special
Hey Hey, Tell ’Em About US
Jimmie Rodgers has been called many things; while active from 1927-’33 he was billed as “the Singing Brakeman” and ”America’s Blue Yodeler” but, in the decades since, the “Father of Country Music” has become most apt. Rodgers’ popularity on record was practically unmatched during his sadly brief career, and a great majority of country artists…
MXR Custom Shop GT-OD Overdrive
Snappy and Smooth
From its early days with the script-logo Distortion + to the modern Zack Wlyde overdrive, MXR has been a mainstay…
Dickerson Melody King
Few who love vintage amps can resist its art-deco appeal, let alone its luscious hand-wiring and edgy, touch-sensitive 6V6 tone.…
1968 Fender Vibrolux Reverb
Silver Serenade
Amplifier collectors swarm to models with descriptors like “first year” and “golden age,” but other types can be far more…
Kid Ramos’ Revelation!
West Coast legend melds blues with gospel Check out Kid Ramos using a ’56 Harmony H62 running through a vintage…
Freddie King’s Gibson ES-345 Keeps on Playin’
Family Ties
Watching her baby boy become rapt whenever his grandma played country blues on her guitar, Ella May King had a notion… So, as soon as his tiny hands could fret…
1938 Supertone Gene Autry Roundup
In the depths of the Great Depression, people turned to entertainment for distraction. Not that there was much to be had when cash was in short supply, but two inexpensive…
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,…
The Gretsch 6169 Electromatic Twin Western
What good was selling a newfangled electric guitar back at the dawn of the revolution if you didn’t have an electric guitar amplifier to go along with it? Any significant…
Danelectro Viscount
1961 Danelectro Viscount Preamp tubes: two 12AX7, one 6AU6 Output tubes: two 6V6GT Rectifier: 6X5 Controls: Volume, Tone, Vibrato Strength, Vibrato Speed Output: 12 watts RMS Amp nuts of yesteryear…
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Chris Butler’s Vox Mark VI: Waitress Server
Melding garage rock with glam, punk emerged in the early ’70s, set on stirring society’s pot. From New York to London, Dallas to Detroit, youthful contempt spurred the creation of raw, loud, low-budget music raging against Top 40 and arena rock. In Akron, Ohio, the anger was disproportionate. Poster child for the dying American industrial…
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Sue Foley
Femme Flamenco
In a time when pop-music performers rely heavily on post-recording fix-ups and pre-recorded tracks onstage, it’s refreshing – even admirable – when someone takes the “honest road.” Singer/guitarist Sue Foley is one of the few. While the Austin-by-way-of-Ottawa guitarist is known primarily as a blues artist, she’s also a skilled classical/flamenco player, as heard throughout…
Danelectro’s Four-String Basses
The guitars and basses made by Danelectro in the ’60s epitomized “no frills.” And though they were considered the nadir…
Sixty Years of Tele-Kinetic Guitar Heroes
Flying Saucers! Tail Fins! Robots!
Taking a cue from the burgeoning world of television, in 1951, Leo Fender married the name “Telecaster” to his new…
La Baye 2X4
1967, the Summer of Love. Everything still seemed possible, and anything went. No more war, racial and gender equality, Fresh…
The Ovation Adamas II
What do you get when you cross a helicopter with a Martin dreadnought? Easy answer – Ovation guitars, perhaps the…
Fender Precision Bass Elite II
On a Tangent In Its Time
Precision Bass has been offered in a myriad of models in its 50 years of existense, including a number of “reissues.” One of the more intriguing variants was the Elite…
Jake Andrews’ video encore: “Eyes On The Prize”
Austin Great Goes Full Steam for “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews’ video encore: “Eyes On The Prize” Jake Andrews makes a VG-social-media curtain call by playing “Eyes On The…
100 Years of Boston’s MFA
Playable Exhibits
Musical instruments – guitars – present an interesting philosophical dichotomy. On one hand, they’re utilitarian objects whose very purpose – arguably their only purpose – is to create art, to…
Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”
Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from the typical blues player. A devotee of B.B. King (and…
The Story of Melobar
Stand-Up Steel
Born in Northern California in 1920, Walt Smith took piano lessons and became a child prodigy on several instruments before developing a love of big-band music and Western swing. Chasing…
Jeff Plankenhorn’s “Alone At Sea”
Tasty slide on a square-neck Oahu Singer/songwriter Jeff Plankenhorn’s music is a rootsy mix that embraces blues and pop while dodging categorization. Here, he and his vintage square-neck Oahu offer…
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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
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The Supro Thunderbolt S6420
Lightning Strikes
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
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Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings
Double-bound for Glory
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
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Joey Molland
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
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number is 6326H6365 and the label is also printed with “B1172.” The second is what I believe is a Goya-made Greco GR1 from the late ’60s with serial number
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Javier Batiz
Mexican guitarist Javier Batiz, a teacher and inspiration to Carlos Santana and other musicians, passed away December 14 at his home in Tijuana, Baja California. He was 80. Known as the “Godfather of Mexican Rock,” “La Layenda” (The Legend) and other sobriquets, Batiz came to appreciate American blues guitarists such as B.B. King and John
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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…
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’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…
Jorge Garcia’s FM Anthems, in Jazz
Fresh takes on revered classics Joge Garcia’s “Still Crossing” is a collection of stellar instrumental performances of familiar tunes like…
Horray For Hollywood
The Guitars and Amps of Jersey Boys
Movies made in the 1950s and ’60s that included rock-and-roll music acts typically showed them performing in segments using their…
Maestro GA-45T
AMP-O-RAMA
Until just a couple years ago, Fender really was the only major name in collectible vintage American-made tube guitar amplifiers.…
Eight-String Basses
Sonic Niche
Emerging in ’60s catalogs from Hagström and Framus, eight-string basses occupy a distinct place among musical instruments – their potent,…
