• Classic Instruments

     Jason Isbell

    New Vistas, Old Gear

    Jason Isbell’s powerful songs, compelling vocals, and formidable guitar skills have made him one of America’s most-respected singer/songwriters. A charismatic performer, his critically-lauded albums, solo and backed by the formidable 400 Unit, have earned six Grammys and nine Americana Music Awards. With an eclectic style melding country, blues, and Southern rock, his appeal transcends genres.

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Greg Lake’s 
Zemaitis Doubleneck

Twice as Heavy

With progressive-rock juggernaut Emerson, Lake & Palmer, bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (1947-2016) played more than one instrument made by the renowned British luthier Tony Zemaitis. Known for their fancy tops of…

The Collins Kids

Mostly-Moseley Memories

Siblings Lorrie and Larry Collins sprang into the public eye in the mid 1950s – dawn of the television era – on a program called “Town Hall Party.” The big-sister/little-brother…

Tech 21 Trademark 60

Incredible sound at a nice price

In the past six years we’ve focused mostly on used gear, but occasionally included new stuff that works so well it’s impossible to ignore. This month’s entree, the Trademark 60,…

Classics: August 2021

Guild F-20 Troubadour and Dan Armstong Lucite

John Wiley couldn’t have known it then, but when his parents rewarded two years of applying himself to guitar lessons by giving him a brand-new Guild F-20 Troubadour in 1960,…

Prototypes and Pathfinders

Five Amps That Set the Tone – Or Hoped To

Groundbreaking and undeniably collectible guitar amplifiers have made frequent appearances in this space over the years, but so have prototypes, limited runs, rare, or unusual examples that hold a fascination…

Gibson J-185

Flat-top worthy of comparison

One of the most-fabled flat-top guitars Gibson ever produced is the Gibson J-185. Introduced in 1951, and discontinued in ’59, only 270 natural-finish and 648 sunburst J-185s were made. Guitarists…

Oliver Sound, Inc.

"Flex" beyond Ampeg

Introduction If you’ve read Gregg Hopkins and Bill Moore’s new book, Ampeg: The Story Behind The Sound, you know that Jess Oliver played a major role in the success of…

Building a Studio

The Art of Home Recording

VG will equip readers with the knowledge and skill to achieve professional-sounding home recordings. We guide you through the setup of a home studio – a starting point to this…

Gibson Goldtops

Molten Mojo, Head-To-Head Vintage Versus Reissue

In the good ol’ days of 1952, jazzmeister Les Paul strutted to the center of the world’s stage and proudly whipped out his golden Gibson electric guitar. Simple-minded purists howled…

EKO 995

The Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February of 1964 is often referred to as the most important event in the history of rock music, having inspired thousands…

Ampeg Horizontal Basses

From Liden, NJ. to Linden Avenue, Burbank, CA.

The Ampeg Horizontal Bass, perhaps because of its rarity and odd beauty, has become quite a collector’s item. And because production records for Ampeg products were lost or destroyed after…

Walter Becker’s Bogner Ecstasy 100B

In 1993, when Bogner was fast becoming the hippest name on the high-gain-amp scene, star guitarists were clamoring for that hot new tone. One who missed out recently brought “his”…

Rickenbacker A22

Frying Pan

The Rickenbacker model A22 lap steel was the first commercially available electric guitar. Although it bears the brand name “Rickenbacker,” it was actually the brainchild of George Beauchamp. In the…

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…

Fender Custom Shop Marks 30 Years

Dream Makers

In “official” terms, the Fender Custom Shop opened in 1987. But its story actually began February 1, 1985 – the day CBS announced the sale of Fender Musical Instruments to…

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”…

Martin 00-18

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…

Matchless JJ-30

Stage Staunch

Rare and sought-after, in part because only about 40 were built, the Matchless JJ-30 John Jorgenson is the only Signature Series amp ever made by the original company. Designed for…

Standard in Custom

Schecter’s Custom Shop Marks 35 Years

Riding high after 35 years with an array of original instruments, an impressive artist roster that started early with Pete Townshend and Mark Knopfler, and a line of high-gain amplifiers,…

Jim Marshall

Father of the Mighty Marshall Stack

When it comes to guitar amplifiers, two names stand tall beyond the others: Leo Fender and Jim Marshall. Even “civilians” recognize these names. Two names, from two different countries, with…

G&L Legacy

One Heckuva Guitar

I enjoy covering sleeper gear in this column. During the past 11 years, we’ve looked at bargains like the Gibson L-6S, Seagull S-6+, Martin D-1 and the Peavey Bandit, to…

Fender Custom Color Strat main

Custom-Color Stratocasters

The Stratocaster was born in 1954. A solidbody with three pickups, contoured back and top, vibrato, and bolt-on neck, it was different. And it changed the way people looked at,…

Epihone Deluxe Archtop

Head-On With the L-5

Webster’s latest defines the word “deluxe” as “…notably luxurious, elegant, or expensive.” The Epiphone Deluxe archtop guitar was certainly luxurious. When introduced in 1931, it sported a triple-bound top with…

Martin 00-18

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…

Holy Cripes!

The Story of Jerry Garcia’s Last Guitars

Steve Cripe left a unique legacy in the annals of music history. He was not a guitar player, not a songwriter. In fact, you may not even know his name.…

Guild in the Post-Fender Era

Guild in the Post-Fender Era

Round and Round She Goes

Since its beginnings in 1952, Guild has gone through many changes in ownership, location, marketing approach, and design philosophy. In the course of a change in ownership and three moves,…

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?…

Gibson’s 17″ Pre-War Electrics

ES-300 of 1940-’43

Among musicians and collectors, Gibson’s pre-World-War-II ES-300 may be less popular today than the ES-250, but in terms of sheer numbers, it was Gibson’s most popular 17″ pre-war electric, despite…

Guyatone LG-160T

The Secret's Out!

Like plants, Japanese guitars have an almost secret life of which few people outside are aware. While many Americans in the ’60s were seeing fairly low-end commodity guitars at the…

Kalamazoo KG-1

Collectible value in guitars can be defined any number of ways, and not just by having a popular brand name such as Fender or Gibson. That’s certainly the case with…