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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
Maxon OD-9, SD-9, and AF-9
Maxon updates three classic stomp toys
If you’ve cruised the aisles of a guitar show in the last couple of years, and sauntered up to a table full of effects pedals, you’ve probably experienced a little…
ES-Les Paul
F-hole with soul
ES-Les Paul Price: $2,799 to $3,199 (list) Contact: www.gibson.com Gibson’s latest version of the Les Paul isn’t the first with f-shaped sound holes. Various Florentine models have been offered, but…
Sweet Sustain
Guitar Tech Craig’s Dino Sauce Compressor
Imagine a Strat tuned to open G, a D chord being floated at the seventh fret with a Craftsman deep-well socket. What is that ethereal sweetness and sustain under Lowell…
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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
SX SST-57 Guitar and SJB-57 Bass
Redefining "Low-End" Gear
SX SST-57 guitar. Once upon a time, cheap guitars were just that – inferior imported planks bought as Christmas gifts then replaced as fast as one could afford. But with…
PRS Guitars’ McCarty
Ted Talkin’
In the late 1980s, Ted McCarty, the man who served as president of Gibson during the company’s “golden age,” became a special consultant to Paul Reed Smith, sharing insight on…
Dawner Prince Electronics Pulse
A New Spin
There are plenty of takes on the Leslie rotating speaker and its most famous stompbox offshoot, the Shin-ei Uni-Vibe. Dawner Prince Electronics’ Pulse, however, is an open-cabinet revolving speaker emulator…
PureSalem Bette
Unfiltered Garage Rock
If you’ve ever worked in the music retail field, you know that not everybody shares your excellent taste in guitars. There’s a whole other mutant strain out there that does…
Aiken Invader 30
Randall Aiken makes his home in Buford, Georgia, and for many years has been repairing and designing amps. A double-degree holding electrical engineer who put himself through college by fixing…
Keeley Engineering Compressor Pro
Game Changer
Keeley Engineering Compressor Pro Price: $299 (list) Contact: www.robertkeeley.com Studio-quality dynamic control at your feet is a luxury that guitarists haven’t seen before. With the Compressor Pro, Keeley Engineering has…
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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
Guild Surfliner
Hang Ten
The Surfliner is Guild’s first new solidbody to come along in decades. A thoroughly modern design with classic features, there’s no mistaking the influence in this offset guitar. Named after…
Fender Songwriter
The Songwriter: Ill-fated Mini-Fender
Just when you think you’ve seen or heard of everything Fender ever did, along comes another tidbit about a guitar that was prototyped but never produced. In 1969 and ’70…
ToneWorks AX1500G
New Tool from ToneWorks
Ahhh, there are never enough toys for us guitarists, are there? Just when we think our rigs are complete, along comes some cool box to turn our heads and make…
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…
Baker B1H and BJH
Top quality looks, playability, and tone
This month, the VG Product Advisory Council received a pair of Baker guitars, a B1H and a BJH, from new-kid-on-the-block Gene Baker, in California. Both guitars are mid-sized semi-hollow designs…
Gretsch’s G6128T-CLFG Cliff Gallup Signature Duo Jet
Tip Of The (Blue) Cap
Hot dog! Gretsch has long dreamed of issuing a Cliff Gallup signature guitar, but the stars never quite aligned – until now. Gallup, of course, was the fleet-fingered guitar man…
Tech 21 Steve Harris SH1 Signature SansAmp
Tone of the Beast
Tech 21’s Steve Harris SH1 Signature Sans Amp celebrates the tone of metal icon Harris, Iron Maiden’s bassist, songwriter, and driving force. For 40 years, Harris has delivered a brash…
Guild Bluesbird
Flyin’ High Again
The Guild Bluesbird has a long history that began in the 1950s with Guild’s answer to the Gibson Les Paul –the M-75 Aristocrat, later renamed the M-75 Bluesbird. The guitar…
Fender Mike McCready Strat
Evener Flow
Mike McCready’s beat up sunburst ’60s Strat looms large in the history of grunge; heard on Pearl Jam’s illustrious body of recorded work and seen in the band’s millions-viewed videos,…
Reverend Slingshot
Modern Sound with a Cool Vintage Vibe
Many Vintage Guitar readers are probably familiar with Reverend guitars, designed and built by Joe Naylor in Michigan (VG, May ’99). Naylor created Naylor Amplifiers, but later left the company…
Effector 13 Improbability Drive
“Beam Me Up, Jimi” – The Effector 13 Improbability Drive – spacey, fuzzy, and funky
We understand how you might react. “Another drive pedal?” There are so many… a lot of them similar, or nearly identical? But then again, some are different… (Cue Captain Kirk…
Xotic Guitar XSS-1 Super S Style
Tribute To The King
Xotic’s S-style guitar line pays homage to the man who revolutionized rock guitar in the ’80s. Hint: He was hot for teacher. The latest version is the XSS-1 Super S,…
Xotic Effects’ Wah XW-1
State-Of-The-Art MousEtrap
Xotic Effects’ Wah XW-1 Price: $295 (list); $249 (street) Contact: xotic.us/ The chase for tone sometimes seems like never-ending “Tom and Jerry” reruns. Enter Xotic Effects and their better mousetrap:…
Xotic Effects RC Booster Reissue
Return of A Legend
Twenty years ago, Xotic Effects unleashed its iconic RC Booster. With variable Gain, EQ, and Volume controls, it was a mainstay on pedalboards the world over for players seeking top-shelf…
Luna Art Vintage Parlor Acoustic/Electric
Rustic Charm
Luna’s newest entry in its Vintage Series, the Art Vintage Parlor takes modern playability and puts it in a rustic package. The guitar’s solid spruce top on mahogany back and…
Holbrook TS50 Tommy Skeoch Head
More Than Modded
After Kevin Holbrook and rock guitarist Tommy Skeoch began working on a custom amp, the former took several trips to visit the latter, lugging prototypes between California and Florida. But,…
AJ Peat Screaming Flamingo, Wild Goose, Dirty Buzzard
Birds Are the Word
AJ Peat is in the business of creating some of the hippest music gear on the planet. Boutique guitars, pedals, and audio devices all bare his thumbprint, and his take…
Budda 10th Ann. Limited Edition Twinmaster
Purple, Proud, and Punchy
In 1995, Budda Amplification made its debut with the Twinmaster Ten, a stripped-down, no-frills 18-watt combo designed to keep up with full stacks in terms of tone and volume. The…
Misa Kitara
Axe of the Future?
Misa Kitara Price: $789 Info: www.misadigital.com. The guitar synthesizer has been around for more than 30 years and made significant inroads to contemporary music, thanks to fusion heroes like Pat…
The Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine
Stately Shimmer
Famous for well-regarded interfaces, plug-ins, and vintage-gear emulations, Universal Audio has entered the pedal business with the Astra Modulation Machine, Starlight Echo Station, and Golden Reverberator. Each has an array…
Epiphone’s Wilshire and Coronet
Gotta Rock
Some elemental solidbodies were born to rock – the SG, Telecaster, and Les Paul Special and Junior come to mind. Born in the late ’50s, Epiphone’s Coronet and Wilshire were…
