• Classics: Norman Harris

    Classic Instruments

    Classics: Norman Harris

    Rare Pioneer

    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

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  • Yamaha SA-15

    Yamaha SA-15

    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: Gristly “Blues”

    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…

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…

Jabo, Vince, and Broadcaster 0048

Special Addition

September 9, 2022 · Rich Kienzle

It’s routine for Vince Gill, as one of Nashville’s true connoisseurs of electric and acoustic gear, to receive tips about…

Supro Thunderbolt

Supro Thunderbolt

October 25, 2017 · Christopher Tackett

Designed “…exclusively for the electric Bass guitar,” it was simplicity itself, with no “fancy extra circuits.” But much like with…

The Rickenbacker 4000

March 21, 2016 · Willie G. Moseley

The model 4000 was not only Rickenbacker’s first foray into the electric-bass market, it was decidedly different from Fender’s Precision…


Soul-jazz legend Calvin Keys

Exclusive spin on “Six to Seven” Calvin Keys has worked with Jimmy Smith, Ahmad Jamal, and Ray Charles. Here, he and his ’72 Gibson Johnny Smith play “Six to Seven,”…

Fender’s 1960 Bandmaster

Power of Three

The earliest renditions of our gear icons are often the most valuable, but on many occasions it’s the transition models – those that bridged one era to the next –…

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…

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…

The Thompson Tremor Bender

Big Bend

Longtime musician and professional tool-and-die maker Don Thompson recently introduced the Tremor Bender, a retrofit stringbending device for most Fender- and Gibson-style instruments. Thompson’s goal was to make a stringbender…

  • Hilary Gardner returns with a fresh take on a holiday classic!

    Hilary Gardner returns with a fresh take on a holiday classic!

    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…

  • The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150!

    The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150!

    The Immortal Danelectro Guitarlin

    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…

Rosalie Allen’s SJ-200

Trophy Flat-Top

March 27, 2019 · George Gruhn

On the pages featuring the Super Jumbo 200, Gibson’s 1940 catalog trumpeted, “This king of the flat-top guitars was especially…

1968 Fender Vibrolux Reverb

Silver Serenade

May 21, 2019 · Dave Hunter

Amplifier collectors swarm to models with descriptors like “first year” and “golden age,” but other types can be far more…

Gibson GA-200 Rhythm King Vintage Guitar magazine

Gibson GA-200 Rhythm King

July 9, 2015 · Dave Hunter

Preamp tubes: two 12AX7, one 12AY7, two 6BJ8, two 6SK7, one 6V6 (used as a voltage divider) Output tubes: two…

Michael Bloomfield’s ’63 Telecaster

Michael Bloomfield’s ’63 Telecaster

This Guitar Killed Folk!

January 22, 2025 · Ward Meeker

A silver-spoon teen who loved sneaking into Chicago’s southside blues clubs, Michael Bloomfield reveled in absorbing all he could from…


Earliest Gretsch 6120

…Revealed!

The Gretsch company rose to the upper echelon of guitar manufacturers in the 1950s with the introduction of a diverse and dynamic array of electric models. Arguably the most identifiable…

Fall Philly 2014

[caption id="attachment_19277" align="alignleft" width="300"] We are here at the Philly show checking out all the killer guitars! Here's a '54 Goldtop Les Paul, 59 TV Junior, '55 Junior, '59 Epiphone…

Jimmy James’ Psychedelic R&B

“Parlor Strut” on a vintage Harmony! Proving that ’60s import guitars can make cool sounds, Parlor Greens guitarist Jimmy James plugged in to demonstrate. Yes, he modded his Harmony H54…

A Guide to Vintage Dobros

John Dopyera left National in 1929 to begin work on a secret project – a single-cone resonator guitar he believed superior to the Triolian. His instrument became synonymous with resonator…

Epiphone Riviera

The Epiphone Riviera helped reinvent Epiphone in the 1960s as a modern guitar company whose instruments sported such contemporary features as thinline, semi-hollow, double-cutaway bodies and humbucking pickups. In the…

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…

  • McKinley James’ Blues

    McKinley James’ Blues

     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…

  • Jim Campilongo & Steve Cardenas

    Jim Campilongo & Steve Cardenas

    Mutual Musical Idiosyncrasies

    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…

Tyler Morris Features a Martin Style 2 1/2-17

October 16, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

Tyler Morris Playing a Martin Style 2 1/2-17 Tyler Morris grabbed his 19th-century Martin Style 2 1/2-17 to play a…

Duane Eddy

Of DeArmonds and Details

May 2, 2024 · Willie G. Moseley

(Ed. Note: Duane Eddy was featured in the June ’95 issue of VG, following the release of his Twang Thang…

The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Fretted cheesecake advertising through the years, Part One

April 5, 2024 · Peter Stuart Kohman

There are many ways for an advertiser to attract attention, and in the history of 19th- and 20th-century print hucksterisim…

Dan’s Guitar RX: Building a From-Scratch Class Project

Rock-And-Roll High School(er)

April 6, 2023 · Dan Erlewine

Students at Federal Hocking High School here in Athens County, Ohio, are given the opportunity to propose internships in work that…