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VG Approved Gear
Fender American Vintage II 1965 Strat
Classic Character
The 1965 Stratocaster joins Fender’s American Vintage II reissues of Strats from ’54, ’57, ’61, and ’73. It’s the company’s first dip into a “transitional” instrument from the year CBS acquired the brand amidst the “guitar boom.” With the AVII series, Fender’s goal in part is to reexamine underappreciated instruments while fixing a few details
Xotic Guitars’ XSC-1 California Classic
New Connection
Xotic is known for its plethora of sonic effect-pedal goodies, but its current guitar line also tends to turn heads. The Xotic XSC-1 California Classic is an American Strat-style guitar…
Brown Fretted/less Bass
Catches with the eye, keeps with the feel
The Brown’s Guitar Factory Fretted/less bass leaves an immediate impression. Yes, its Purpleheart body wings are attractive, as are its ebony-veneered maple headstock with abalone/mother-of-pearl, engraved/inked logo, and its graphite-reinforced…
Magnatone Varsity Reverb
Too Cool For School
Face it. They may look oh-so-cool, but rarely do you really, truly need that full amp stack. Most gigs for mere mortals these days are in smaller venues where smaller…
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Meris Enzo X
Synth Evo
The world of guitar synthesizer is vast and often confusing, from older floor units to the latest generation of synth pedals, all of which have pros and cons. Meris is pushing the envelope outward with the Enzo X, which uses the company’s acclaimed “bubble screen” interface. It looks daunting at first, but is actually intuitive
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Xotic Effects AC Booster-V2
Musical, Minimalist
Xotic Effects’ AC Booster-V2 offers all the signature sounds of the company’s popular original while bringing improved touch sensitivity, gain, and overtones. Using Classic Mode, the pedal offers the original AC Booster’s signature sound; Gain controls grit, Volume tweaks output level, Bass secures low-end, Treble manages highs. Jump to Modern Mode and you’ll hear enhanced
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Grez Grand Tour
Big Bottom
Barry Grzebik had an ambitious goal for his all-new line of hollow-bodies: Deliver the low-end resonance of a deep archtop in a guitar with a slim, lightweight profile. With just one open-stringed strum of this 5.8-pounder, even unplugged, there’s no mistaking he hit his mark. Behind that big bottom end is a novel approach to
The Daddy Mojo Ozark
All But The Kitchen Sink
For a decade, Daddy Mojo has been making cigar-box guitars that refine the vibe of those rudimentary instruments. In 2016, the company debuted a line of traditional guitars under the…
Austin Mics DIY Summer Reverb
for Kicks and More
Rick Wilkinson’s Austin Mics company, based in San Diego, specializes in do-it-yourself ribbon-microphone kits and DIY guitar pedals. His latest is the Summer Spring Reverb pedal, a digital spring reverb…
Boss Katana 100
Impressive Amenities
More and more, guitarists’ passion for tube amps is being balanced by the rise of quality digital, solidstate, and modeling amps, and for good reason – they’re often inexpensive while…
DryBell Unit67
Balkan Boost
DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory has been kicking out great pedals for a few year, with clients like Mike Landau, John Mayer, Steve Stevens, and Joe Perry, to name a few.…
Music Man’s JP13
Petrucci Pick
Music Man’s JP13 Price: $3,500 Info: www.music-man.com. Music Man has a knack for building blazing artist models for the likes of Steve Morse, Albert Lee, and John Petrucci – three…
Chicago Blues Box Kingston 18
Goin' Back to Chicago…
The latest creation from Dan Butler, of the Chicago-based Butler Custom Sound, is the Kingston. Available in 18- and 30-watt configurations, the Kingston is 1x 12 combo that features a…
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Reverend Sensei H90
Live Wire
So you want a Gibson-style solidbody that can cover humbucker-powered rock, yet also twangier/glassier tones using a P-90 pickup. Check. You also want to grab high frets via double-cutaway and have the pitch reliability of a tune-o-matic bridge and locking tuners. Got it. One more thing: it’s got to look cool and old-school. Hmm…. sounds
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PRS Swamp Ash Special
Narrow(field) Win
The bolt-on Swamp Ash Special has been around for nearly three decades, but PRS just retooled the U.S.-built version and dropped it at NAMM. There are significant upgrades. While earlier versions had humbuckers with a single-coil pickup between them, this latest plank has a PRS Narrowfield (NF) humbucker in the middle. Another bonus is the
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Martin D-28 Standard
If nobody mentioned that Martin’s new Standard line had been updated, a player might be forgiven for not immediately noticing that the latest D-28 has been subtly changed. After all, it’s the D-28 – one of the most recognizable and enduring American icons – and the thought of altering such a flagship is likely to
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Carr Skylark Special 1×12
Take Flight
Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced tonal depths to squeeze a lot more into this diminutive combo. Specs remain much the same, deriving 12 watts of power from a pair of 6V6GT output tubes into a 12″ Celestion A-Type speaker. But,
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Walrus Audio’s Mako Series MKII
Walrus Audio’s Mako Series MKII bolster the sounds of their first-gen predecessors, using altered algorithms, new controls, and better tonal quality. The most-obvious changes are new fine-tune settings and a menu screen. The M1 High-Fidelity Modulation Machine offers Chorus, Phaser, Tremolo, Vibrato, Rotary, and Filters. Running between a Deluxe Reverb a Les Paul Traditional or
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LSL Instruments’ Lucid OD and OG OD
Lively Drives
LSL Instruments is best known for high-end Leo-style guitar builds, but they’ve also started delving into overdrive pedals. The Lucid OD is their version of a Klon Centaur – one of the priciest stompboxes in human history ($5,000-plus for the first-gen gold box with the horse logo). The box offers Volume, Gain, and Tone knobs
Peavey Vypyr VIP2
Backline in a Box
Peavey Vypyr VIP2 Price: $199.99 Contact: www.peavey.com For more than 40 years Peavey’s ongoing evolution while building guitars, amps, and pro audio equipment has attracted some big names in the…
Jam Pedals RetroVibe
Bridge Of Floyd
In a civilized world, every guitarist would have a bit of Robin Trower, Pink Floyd, and Band Of Gypsys shimmer in their musical vocabulary. Fitting, then, that a company headquartered…
GluBoost MasterGlu, Fill N’ Finish, MasterTint, and Gludry Accelerator
Stick-To-It-Iveness
There exists a subculture of guitarists who build, customize, or resurrect their own instruments, or help friends with theirs. GluBoost’s line of glues, dry accelerators, and wood finishing products allows…
Eastwood Airline Deluxe
Get Yer' Wings
The demand for vintage and retro-style axes has become so prevalent in today’s guitar-crazy culture that there’s hardly a brand, style, or color of guitar from the ’50s to the…
Railhammer Billy Corgan Z-One Humcutters
Clear Crunch
In the quest for tone, the secret is a combination of pickups, wood, construction, and the magic in a player’s fingers. Aiming for a tone like a P-90 with hot…
Giffin Vikta
Feelin’ Special
Giffin Vikta Price: $2,295 Contact: www.premierbuildersguild.com Roger Giffin is a guitarmaker to the stars, having built for Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, Mark Knopfler, Andy Summers, David Gilmour,…
Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter
Tremolo Transformed
Tremolo is a simple effect: the amplitude, or volume, of an incoming signal is raised and lowered in pulsating waves. With the Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter, the player is invited…
Supro Huntington
Looking supremely ’60s-like with its gorgeous, vintage-y cherry-red finish, petite body, and fancy-topped pickups, the Supro Huntington is inviting as all get-out. A short-scale axe, it combines a classic shape…
Hall & Collins Signature Echo
Echo Rock
For guitarists whose lives are dedicated to replicating the echo effects heard on songs like Hank Marvin’s “Apache,” Hall & Collins Signature Echo is at their service. Combining analog and…
Lollar Pickups
Super-Suitable Substitutes
Seattle’s Jason Lollar not only builds fine pickups, he also builds archtop, solidbody, and lap steel guitars (his list of clients includes National, DeTemple, Harmos, and Zero Guitars). And he…
JHS Pink Panther
Diamond Delay
To mark the 10th anniversary of its original Pink Panther delay, JHS has created an updated edition that packs a plethora of cool appointments in an attractive box. Modeled after…
BMF Effects’ GeSpot Fuzz
Pure Pleasure
If the sheer number of fuzz pedals available today is any indication, the “noisy” little boxes are perhaps the most popular effects. One outfit that offers a good selection amid…
The Vox Bobcat V90
Feral Feline
In the Swinging ’60s, Vox guitars were all the rage, particularly among British and European players. Though stylish and visually innovative, the Italian-made guitars were also inconsistent, with anemic pickups…
Rahbek Standard
A fine custom guitar, Danish-style
Rahbek Guitars hail from Copenhagen, Denmark, hotbed of electric guitar production. Huh? Okay, so that ain’t the case. But those who would rush to judgment over the thought of buying…
Providence Anadime Chorus ADC-4
Don’t Call It a Comeback
Providence Anadime Chorus ADC-4 Price: $249 (list) Contact: www.providence-ltd.com The chorus pedal holds the distinction of once having been extremely popular, becoming dated and undesirable, then enjoying a resurgence of…
Universal Audio’s OX Amp Top Box
The Tube Abides
Since the mid ’60s, electrical engineers have been trying to drive a stake into the heart of the vacuum tube, first with transistors, then with zeros and ones. Yet the…
PRS CE 24
One Guitar, All night
There are gigs where a guitarist needs to cover a vast range of sounds and tones yet yearns to schlep just one 6-string to the show. It might be a…
The Budda Twinmaster
Return of a Boutique Legend
In the early days of boutique-amp building, there were but a few contenders on the scene. One of the strongest amplifiers in those days was made by Budda. First released…
Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo
Tone to the Third Squared
The Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo Price: $491.84 list (Epitome) and $292.35 list (Tone Tattoo) Info: www.ehx.com The concept is smart yet so obvious it’s a wonder no one came up…
Marshall Handwired Series 2245THW Head and 1960AHW Cabinet
Bluesbreaker Redux
Marshall Handwired Series 2245THW Head and 1960AHW Cabinet 2245THW Prices: $4,800 (list); $3,299.99 (street); 1960AHW Prices: $2,180 (list); $1,399.99 (street) Contact: www.marshallamps.com Marshall Amplification needs no introduction. The company’s iconic…
Fargen’s John Lennon Signature JL-15 and Micro Plex
Instant Karma?
Fargen’s John Lennon Signature JL-15 and Micro Plex Price: $2,700 (JL-15), $999 (Micro Plex) Info: www.fargenamps.com. From 50-watt monsters to 5-watt heads, Fargen Amplification is known for building amplifiers intended…
