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VG Approved Gear
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
Martin D-18VE
Bring It On, Pre-War D!
The C.F. Martin Company has been around longer than any instrument manufacturer. It’s an icon whose guitars have consistently set the standard by which production (and often custom) acoustics are…
JHS 3 Series
Budget Boutique
JHS’ seven new 3 Series pedals strip away cosmetics and frills. History has told us that simple pedal designs can sacrifice key elements. Is that the case here? Presented in…
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail
Authentic surf-soaked reverb that'd make Dick prou
We’ve long been fans of Electro-Harmonix’s cool reissue pedals. With their inspired looks, feel, and construction, E-H has never steered us wrong. But recently, they threw us a curveball with…
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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
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The Chase Bliss Clean
Posh Squash
With is Clean compressor, Chase Bliss set out to create a pedal that would duplicate the vivid interactivity of a dirty tube amp, but with a completely clean tone. While a standard compressor can give your guitar (bass, keyboard, etc.) a professional sheen, the Clean is a stereo unit that can polish mixes or deliver
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The Eastwood Super Axe
Chet Powered!
Wait – what? Did Eastwood just bring back the Super Axe, that incredibly rare bird from the late ’70s? Indeed, they did. A Korean-made reissue, it captures the spirit of Gretsch’s chambered curiosity. Grabbing one, the first thing you’ll notice is the oversized yet thin body, with its arched top and the enchanting lines of
Parker NiteFly Mojo Flame
Get Yer Mojo Workin'!
When Parker Fly guitars were introduced in July, 1993, they were strange aliens from a distant guitar planet, sporting a radical design, composite body, and neck, and one of the…
Guyatone FR3000V Reverb, MT-3, WR3 and MD3
effects deliver, regardless of size
Guyatone FR3000V Reverb Reverb! King of guitar effects. If there’s an extracurricular sound guitarists most want, it’s reverb. Maybe because even if they’re playing the most low-down, dirty dive, they…
Alembic Essence Zebrawood 4
Alembic basses are the stuff of low-end legend, famed for magical tones in the hands of Stanley Clarke, Jack Casady, and John McVie, among others. The newer Essence 4 series…
Dunlop Fuzz Face Mini Distortion Pedals
Face Lift
Dunlop’s Fuzz Face Mini Distortion Pedals Price: $129.99 (Germanium, street);$99.99 (Silicon and Jimi Hendrix, street) Contact: www.jimdunlop.com. When it comes to fuzz pedals, the one that comes to mind for…
Devi Ever:FX Big Distortion Sound Machine
Enough is Never Enough
Devi Ever:FX Big Distortion Sound Machine Price: $200 (list) Contact: www.devieverfx.com Want fuzz, crunch, and overdrive? How about all at once? The Devi Ever:FX’s Big Distortion Sound Machine is a…
Supro’s Titan 1642RT
Born To Gig
Supro’s new Titan amp is built to play out. This 50-watt 1×10 tube combo packs it all into a compact, portable package that’s simply antsy to gig. The Titan cranks…
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The Bad Cat Era 30
Retro-Great
So often has the phrase “Mark Sampson era” been applied to pre-2000 Matchless amps or early examples of the Bad Cat line that the term has become a “thing” in and of itself. As applied to Bad Cat’s new Era 30, it means Sampson is back in the fold (see our interview in the March
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Eastwood MRG Lap Steel
Slide Piece
Now more than 90 years old, the lap steel was the earliest example of an electric guitar and remains a stringed instrument every guitarist should try, largely because it’s so accessible. In fact, a lap steel is about as straightforward as you can get – it’s a plank that sits on your lap and is
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Soldano SLO Plus Super Lead Overdive
Icon In Reach
If the iconic Soldano SLO-100 is perpetually on your wish list but its price tag keeps you from pulling the trigger, its creator now has a realistic alternative. Expanding on the original single-channel SLO Overdrive pedal, the SLO Plus introduces a Normal channel alongside Overdrive, each with dedicated controls that allow for detailed tweaking of
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Orange Dual Baby, Gain Baby, and Tour Baby 100
Playpen Power
For 2025, Orange has expanded on its compact Pedal Baby introduced a few years back with a new trio – the Dual Baby, Gain Baby, and Tour Baby. All 100-watt amps with solid-state Class A/B output stages, Jfet preamp stages (another form of solid-state), and two footswitchable channels, they’re housed in 12″ x 3.25″ x
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Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay
Double Echo
Based on the famed Roland SDE-3000 rack unit, Boss’ SDE-3 combines some classic delay sounds of the 1980s, updated with a bevy of modern tricks and features. Like a lot of delays, it can be run in mono, but you’ll get the biggest bang going in stereo to different amps or outputs. The core of
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Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ Reissue
Dual-Mode Delivery
The evolution of Randall Smith’s legendary high-gain Mesa/Boogie design into the revered Mark IIC+ of the mid ’80s established a rock amp that many guitarists still consider the epitome of the form. Building on what was already a high-gain amp by the standards of the day, the M/B team piled on even more gain, more
Phantom Guitarworks’ Teardrop
Droppin’ In On The ’60s
Phantom Guitarworks is dedicated to producing odd-shaped guitars based on designs introduced in the early 1960s like the Vox Mark VI “Teardrop,” which helped the company make a name in…
Dunlop MXR Carbon Copy, ’74 Phase 90 and Buddy Guy Signature Wah
Legendary pedal builder MXR/Dunlop recently introduced a sweet trio of effects; something new from its Custom Shop in the form of the Carbon Copy analog delay, something old in the…
Radial Headload Guitar Amp Load Box
Taming a Shrew
As low-power amps gain in popularity, one wonders what will happen to all the 50- and 100-watt amps starting to gather dust in storerooms. Radial Engineering’s Headload attenuator/load box to…
EarthQuaker Devices Ledges
’Verb Voyage
Billed as a Tri-Dimensional Reverberation Machine, the Earthquaker Ledges boasts a user-friendly interface with no menus or deep MIDI commands to figure out. Its controls are Mix (wet/dry) and Length…
Knaggs Guitars’ Chesapeake Severn Tier 2 Trembuck
All-Genre Style
Knaggs Guitars’ Chesapeake Severn Tier 2 Trembuck Price: $ 5,600 (list)/$4,300 (street) Info: www.knaggsguitars.com. Maryland-based Knaggs Guitars was founded five years ago by former PRS luthier Joe Knaggs and business…
Xaviere XV-950
Jazzy Looks, Multi-Purpose
Gibsonguildgretsch! Cumbersome as it may be in word form, Xaviere’s XV-950 gracefully combines attributes from the “big trio.” The XV-950 employs a classic Florentine cutaway body measuring a small-ish 15″…
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…
Mack Atomsmasher DB-40
Super Dynamics
What do you get when you have a rockin’ pair of 12AX7 tubes and a pair of EL34 power tubes? You get the tonal core of the new Mack tube…
PureSalem Honey Bunny, Pink Beard, Attack Captain
Bring The Fuzz
Remember your first fuzz pedal? Maybe, like a certain reviewer, you literally worked up a sweat trying to strike a deal between the body resonance of an ES-175D and the…
Heritage Guitars’ H-155M
Best-Kept Secret
Heritage Guitars still builds instruments by hand… in Kalamazoo. Like its veteran brethren in the industry, it focuses on craftsmanship, timeless aesthetics, and a consistent product line. One of its…
MTD Kingston Rubicon 6-22
Crossing the Rubicon
MTD Kingston Rubicon 6-22 Price: $999 Info: www.mtdkingston.com Intuitive, player-oriented design, prime materials, and first-class execution distinguished Michael Tobias’s work even before he began concentrating on innovative electric basses in…
Reddick Voyager CS
Mods Made Easy
Exploring creative designs at his shop in Georgia, luthier Ian Reddick aimed to solve a common problem – how to cover a range of tones on a gig without lugging…
Looks Aren’t Everything
Ugly Amps Big Ugly 50 and 100
Steve O’Boyle got his start converting old tube PA heads into guitar amps. Flash forward nearly 17 years and O’Boyle is at the helm of Ugly Amps, building amps with…
DiMarzio’s Black Angel Pickup
Got a Sweet…
Back in the old days, adding a pickup to an acoustic guitar was a major operation that required a luthier’s services. There was one exception, however – the spring-loaded magnetic…
Yamaha’s THR100HD Dual Amp
Double Vision
Modeling amps have evolved rapidly as software and circuits have improved and become, dare we say, more organic sounding. The Yamaha THR100HD is a prime example: a digital head that…
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…
Blackstar Limited Edition JJN-20R MkII
Rockin' Blues Power
If you don’t know about Jared James Nichols, you likely will soon. One of the hottest up-and-coming blues/rock players on the planet, he recently teamed with Blackstar to develop a…
PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow
Multi-Functional Gem
While most guitarists are familiar with PRS (and some dream every day of adding one of the company’s Private Stock axes to their collection), the company’s import SE line typically…
Swart Atomic Jr.
Splitting The Atom
When Swart decided to split their Atomic Jr. five-watt combo into a piggyback, they not only went from an 8″ speaker to a 12″, they added more speaker options, including…
The Fractal VP4
Pedal Power
Famous for amp and cabinet models made to replace an amp for direct recording or plugging right into a PA, Fractal Audio has also developed an array of highly regarded…
Guild’s F-40 Standard
First-Rate Reboot
Bigger may not always be better, but sometimes having a little extra juice can make all the difference. Born in the USA, the jumbo acoustic is American as apple pie…
