•  Reverend Sensei H90

    VG Approved Gear

     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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Newman Guitars’ Honeycomb Chambered Jr.

Way Cool Version

Following Ted Newman Jones’ passing in 2016, protégé Jeff Smith took over Newman Guitars and is furthering the vision, using the same offset body as Jones’ original guitars but employing…

EarthQuaker Devices’ Space Spiral Modulated Delay

Will You Repeat That?

One particularly well-worn joke about playing a bad note advises you to play it twice so folks will think you meant it. But what about all those good notes that…

Larrivee C-09

The Larrivee C-09

The acoustic guitar wars are heating up, with wonderful instruments from Martin, Gibson, and upstarts like Taylor. Bill is making superb instruments down in Texas, and way up in Vancouver,…

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…

 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…

GizmoAudio’s Ripsaw and Sawmill Jr.

GizmoAudio’s Ripsaw and Sawmill Jr.

Just Like the First Time

Durham Electronics’ ReddVerb Price: $180 each (list) Info: www.gizmoaudio.com Most guitar players’ first pedal was a distortion/OD, often acquired after enduring the taunts from friends and/or bandmates who whisper about…

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…

JHS Charlie Brown Overdrive

Beautiful Noise

While few guitarists get the opportunity to plug into every vintage Marshall amp and hear their distinguishing tonal characteristics, most know a good crunchy stompbox when they hear it. The…

Rick Turner Model 1 Deluxe LB

All-Terrain Guitar

Ever wonder about that strange-looking guitar Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac has been playing all these years? The same one John Mayer has occasionally been spotted with as well? It’s…

Roland V-Studio 20

The Roland V-Studio 20

Roland V-Studio 20 Price: $300 (street) Info: www.rolandus.com. Home digital recording has come a long way in the last 20 years, to the point where top bands are cutting full…

Fuchs Overdrive Supreme

Amazing craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal, top-notch

Andy Fuchs, a tube audio product builder from Bloomfield, New Jersey, recently sent us one of his Overdrive Supreme amp heads. Cased in a finger-jointed pine cabinet with tolex covering,…

Walrus Slöer Ambient Reverb

Reverb Reimagined

Reverb is nearly omnipresent in modern music, and for those looking to add some with a twist, Walrus Audio has introduced its Slöer Stereo Ambient Reverb. The Slöer brings typical…

Santa Cruz HT/13 Happy Traum

Fingerstyle Dream

In a career spanning more than 60 years, Happy Traum has been a fixture of the American folk scene, from the Village to Woodstock and the New World Singers to…

Andy Green Pedals’ Seaverb

Endless Reverb

Andy Green offers “basic building blocks” of tone – a concise lineup of effects including distortion, overdrive, fuzz, and reverb. One of those blocks measures 4.75″ x 2.5 x 1.625″…

Supercool “800,” The Thneed, and ’77 Fuzz Blender

Hip Sounds

Supercool Pedals is a Canadian company that makes stompboxes that sound hip and look seriously groovy. Among its offerings is the “800” Preamp/Distortion, which harkens back to ’70s mid-overdrive designs…

Fuchs Audio Technology Full House-50 Combo

The Art of the Deal

The Fuchs Full House-50 1×12 is a compact amp that strives to deliver a range of tones in a small footprint. Weighing in at 52 pounds, the amp has a…

Vintage V52 Icon

Vintage V52 Icon

Cost-Effective Twang

Vintage V52 Icon Price: $459 Info: www.jhs.co.uk The U.K.-based distributor John Hornby Skewes offers guitars under the brand Vintage that cater to a market interested in traditional sounds and old-school…

Gretsch G5191BK Tim Armstrong Electromatic

Cool Player, Punk Heart

Few punk-rock guitarists have made their mark like Tim Armstrong. Through his work with renowned punkers Rancid, Armstrong has torn it up on stages worldwide, and key to his presence…

Groove Tubes Soul-O Single

Soul-O Single

Groove Tubes founder Aspen Pittman is a tube connoisseur. For 24 years, he has listened to, tested, designed, and manufactured many variants of the familiar glass bottles that melt the…

Henriksen Amplifiers’ The Blu

Sound Cube

One old cliché among gigging musicians is, “They pay me for the aggravation, the music is free.” A good deal of that aggravation comes from lugging gear. If you play…

Reddick Voyager Custom

Swap Meet

The concept of pickup-swapping guitars has been around for decades, almost always with cumbersome results. With the Voyager, Reddick Guitars has devised a fresh approach. The essential idea has been…

The Xaviere XV-JT90 and XV-585

Planks for Pennies

Xaviere is a company that imports its guitars from China, sets them up in its Massachusetts shop, then sells direct. The company’s XV-JT90 Offset Hybrid is a solidbody with a…

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom

Rockin’ Down the House

Musicvox Space Cadet and MVX-15 Studio Custom Price: $999 (Space Cadet)/$699 (MVX-15) Contact: www.musicvox.com For nearly two decades, Musicvox’s designs have captivated players and fans, appearing in Austin Powers and…

Legendary Tones Time Machine Boost

Built like a tank, but sings like a bird…

To call Legendary Tones’ Time Machine Boost “…a distortion pedal” would be to sell it extremely short. Designed for use with high-quality tube amps, the Time Machine’s purpose is to…

Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor-II PRO

Archtop Ruler

In the early 1950s, the grand old luthiers like Epiphone and Gibson couldn’t believe there would ever be a market for solidbody guitars. In contrast to their glorious archtop hollowbodies,…

Danelectro Free Speech

"Do You Feeeeel"?

Well, we’ve all had the fun of trying to mimic – even on the worst of nights – a Peter Frampton tune featuring the dreaded “talk box,” possibly even venturing…

JangleBox J-Gate Noise Suppression Gate

Silence, Please!

JangleBox J-Gate Noise Suppression Gate Price: $225 Info: www.janglebox.com Dynasonic, lipstick, and P-90 are all great names for pickups with iconic single-coil tones – typically accompanied by the 60-cycle hum…

Prestige Heritage Premier P90 FM NAT

Liberating the P-90

Approach longtime players with a (yet another) single-cut/single-coil solidbody, and you may find it tough to get their attention. But, the Prestige Heritage Premier P90 does just that. Founded in…

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…

Eastman AR905SCE Uptown Deluxe

Classy Jazz Box

Eastman AR905SCE Uptown Deluxe Price: $3,650 retail Contact: www.eastmanguitars.com Over the past few years the negative stigma attached to guitars manufactured overseas has been altered greatly. Many builders from abroad…