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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
Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave and SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
Circuits Gone Wild
Fuzz and octavers are among the hottest pedals around, with some builders even melding them to great effect. The Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave is one such box. It’s…
Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner
Easy on, easy off, UV protection
Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner Easy on, easy off, UV protection Virtuoso Polish and Cleaner, prominent features at vintage guitar shows a few years ago, were recently reintroduced after a not-so-brief…
Maxon VS Effects
Five Boxes of Fun
With their straight-out-of- the-’70s groovy colors – pea soup green, bright orange, powder blue, plum purple, and Mopar metallic green – Maxon’s Vintage Series Effects look like new old stock,…
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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 Gibson SJ-200
Long Live The King
Introduced in 1937, Gibson’s Super Jumbos radiated star power and quickly became the guitar of choice for those who wanted to be seen; adopters ranged from Gene Autry to Little…
Alairex H.A.L.O.
Heavenly Possibilities
Alairex H.A.L.O. Price: $399 Info: www.alairex.com. Guitarist Alex Aguilar is a veteran player, former guitar-mag columnist, and today runs an effects company that recently released its first box, the Alairex…
Musicvox MI-5 12-String
That Timeless Jangle
The Musicvox MI-5 12-String Price: $899 Info: www.musicvox.com. Since its appearances in the Austin Powers movies, Musicvox guitars have received a cachet for cool ’60s hipness and wicked space-age designs.…
G&L Fallout
Form Follows Function
G&L Fallout Price: $1,400 (retail) Info: www.glguitars.com. From automobiles to kitchen appliances to, of course, electric guitars, designers have gotten a lot of mileage out of retro style in the…
Music Man Game Changer
Twelve Tons of Tone
Music Man Game Changer Price: $2,275 (street) Contact: www.gamechanger.music-man.com Since the introduction of the electric guitar, builders have sought ways to increase the variety of tones that can be had…
Emma Electronic DiscumBOBulator V.2 & Big Joe Powerbox Lithium
Envelope Pushed
Scandinavia may not be the first corner of the globe that comes to mind when one ponders classic funk tones. But with their DiscumBOBulator V.2 the tone-tweakers at Denmark’s Emma…
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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
Orange VT1000 Valve Tester
Orange VT1000 Valve Tester Price: $499 Info: www.orangeamps.com. Many a Vintage Guitar reader has a stash of tubes lying about their music room/workshop or in a box in a closet.…
Gretsch’s ’55 Falcon G6136-55
Look at that “Cadillac”
Gretsch’s 1955 White Falcon was the pink Cadillac of guitars – quite possibly the most outlandish guitar ever produced. The latest Vintage Select Edition Falcon is all that and more.…
Martin’s D-18 & OMC-1
Serving the Name Well
Martin D-18 1937 Authentic – Solid Adirondack red spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, solid mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, ca. 1937 abalone fret markers, 5/16″ Adirondack spruce braces, period-correct…
The PRS HX 50 and HX 2×12 Cabinet
Jimi Jam
Paul Reed Smith has earned a reputation building guitars of the highest quality. It wasn’t until just over a decade ago he tried his hand at building amps, pairing with…
HomeWrecker Pickups
Slumbering Strats, Awake!
In 2011, session guitarist Joshua Hernandez began winding pickups in his living room. From these modest beginnings, and with no desire simply to replicate the sounds of vintage pickups, Hernandez…
Wampler Pedals’ Bravado
Tone Tweaker’s Delight
What’s a pedal platform? Nope, it’s not a carbon-fiber Pinarello mountain bike with Shimano shifters and derailleurs. It’s another term for the Bravado 40-watt head designed by pedal impresario Brian…
D’Angelico’s Deluxe Atlantic Baritone
Lowdown
Baritone guitars have been around for decades, traditionally featured in Nashville and Hollywood studios and elsewhere to “sweeten” a track or for some other “special” application; to hear an example,…
Epiphone Emperor Swingster
Juke-Joint Jammer
Though its high-point in terms of popular exposure may have occurred when McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison “discovered” the Casino, Epiphone has historically been most known for its archtop guitars. Today,…
Jam Pedals’ Delay Llama & Wahcko Wah
What’s In A Name?
Positioning its sonic M.O. squarely in the 1960s and ’70s, Jam Pedals strives to create a distinct line of effects. Beyond their fun graphics and tongue-in-cheek names, Jam’s stompboxes are…
Bixonic Expandora
The Bixonic Expandora is a distortion box par excellence. The name just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? I think Rocky Jones and his Space Rangers had one. I’m sure…
Epiphone’s 75th Anniversary Electar “1939” Century
Little Heartthrob
Many vintage amp connoisseurs have a special place in their hearts for the early Epiphone Electar amplifiers. David Bromberg is one such fan; as he raved to VG recently about…
Electro-Harmonix Pog and English Muff’n pedals
Sounds, Classic and Funky
For the last 37-plus years, Electro-Harmonix has been a prolific innovator and manufacturer of effects pedals and other preamp devices. A few times each year, E-H president Mike Matthews offers…
Bedrock Royal Series
Steve and G.E.'s Excellent Adventure
One of the standouts at this year’s NAMM Show in California was the new retro series of amplifiers from Bedrock. Derived from an uncommon formula (in other words, not just…
D’Angelico NYSS-3 and NYSD-9
Accoutrements, quality worthy of the name D'Angeli
When one thinks of D’Angelicos, elegant jazz archtops from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s spring to mind. As it should be. John D’Angelico was the preeminent archtop builder of his…
Oddfellow Napoleon Boost
Little Dictator
Oddfellow Napoleon Boost Price: $119.99 (list) Contact: www.oddfellowfx.com Overdrive is one of the guitarist’s great joys. Unlike flat-out distortion, overdrive is a broad tonal palette, from clean and full to…
Positive Grid’s Experience Hendrix For Spark & BIAS FX 2
Get Experienced
In the pantheon of guitar gods, few are studied to the degree of Hendrix. And, given the warp speed at which tech moves today, it should come as no surprise…
Bassics BPA-1
Defined Tone
Low-end tone is a critical component of a live mix or studio recording – if the bass doesn’t sound good, the music will suffer. Badly. The Bassics BPA-1, designed by…
Foxrox Captain Coconut
New Pedal, True Vintage Vibe
Dave Fox’s new electronics company, Foxrox, recently hit the market with its Captain Coconut pedal. While most of the interest in the pedal has been through word of mouth, the…
Electro-Harmonix Nano Series LPB-1 and Soul Preacher
Smaller Boxes, Same Big Sounds
Electro-Harmonix Nano Series LPB-1 Renowned guitar-effects builder Electro-Harmonix recently introduced a handful of its most popular pedals, along with a couple of more modern options in its new Nano Series…
Universal Audio Ruby, Woodrow & Dream
Model Of Perfection
With digital recording more popular than ever, audio designers are working to capture guitar tone directly, without miking an amp. Universal Audio – renowned maker of studio gear – has…
The Framptone Talkbox
Do You Feel (Like Frampton)?
The Framptone Talkbox When you hear the words “Do you feel,” what comes to mind? If you’re of a certain age demographic, you know how ubiquitous Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes…
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