• Eastwood MRG Lap Steel

    VG Approved Gear

    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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Paul Hartmann Dutchess

Regal Archtop

Based in the Hudson River Valley, luthier Paul Hartmann has made a name for himself crafting solidbodies, semi-hollowbodies, and most recently, full-on archtops. The Dutchess – named for the New…

Fender Acoustic Pro and Acoustic SFX

Curved Air

Fender has been making acoustic guitar amps for decades – now they’re reinventing the genre, and their designers deserve a round of applause both for the visual makeover and the…

Loar LH-309 VS Archtop

One Cool Cat

Loar LH-309 VS Archtop Price: $569.99 (street) Contact: theloar.com As the retro craze delves deeper into six-string history, a spate of non-cutaway archtops have hit the market, celebrating an era…

Martin D-13E Ziricote

Contemporary Cannon

From the time the first self-branded models shipped from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in the early 1930s, the Martin dreadnought has been one of the most recognizable guitars in American music. The…

Gizmotron 2.0

Sustain Ability

In the Bizarro Effects Hall of Fame, perhaps none was stranger than the aptly named Gizmotron of the late ’70s designed to make a guitar or bass sound akin to…

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…

Mu-FX Boostron 3

One For All, All For One

Leave it to Mike Beigel to create a masterpiece of a stompbox… again. The Mu-FX Boostron 3 is three pedals in one. But it’s also so much more. Sure, you…

Peekamoose Model 3

Modern Retro

There’s no shortage of cool, retro-looking solidbodies on the market today, from the big guys as well as the increasing numbers of boutique builders. Cool looks are great, but for…

M&V Guitars and Pickups Atlas Large-Pole Precision Bass Pickups

Big Bottom

M&V Guitars and Pickups Atlas P Bass-Style Pickups Price: $75 Info: www.mvguitars.com. Let’s face it –  when it comes to boutique pickup options, bass players have gotten the short end…

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…

Buzz Feiten Blues Pro

Buzz Feiten Blues Pro

Cantankerous Tones

Buzz Feiten Blues Pro Price: $2,395 (list) Contact: www.buzzfeitenguitars.com Buzz Feiten is a Woodstock alumnus who has played with a who’s who of music artists and lent his guitar artistry…

Wayne Lap Steel

Wayne's new lap packs a wallop

Wayne Charvel’s name is familiar to any guitarist who was on the scene in the 1980s. If that rock star or bar wunderkind you saw was playing something with a…

Tim Bogert’s Modified Fender

One Fudged Bass

When Vanilla Fudge helped pioneer the progressive-rock movement in the latter half of the ’60s, bassist Tim Bogert played more than one Fender Precision – and usually installed Telecaster Bass…

Yamaha THR10

Practice Perfection?

Yamaha THR10 Price: $299 Contact: usa.yamaha.com As a rule of thumb, practice amps are a compromise. Blissfully portable, they typically lack tone and features. Yet whether in a bedroom or…

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…

Newman Guitars Lake Placid Blue

Portrait in Blue

Excitement at the arrival of this offset beauty was dampened by the sad news that its creator had passed away July 1. Ted Newman Jones was known for building guitars…

Fargen Olde 800 MKII, Sonic Edge J&J Overdrive

Decades of Tone

The Fargen Olde 800 MKII Price: $1,949 Info: www.fargenamps.com. For 10 years, Ben Fargen has established a reputation for building amps based on British and American designs, and for offering…

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123

Chemistry Design Werks’ Holeyboard 123 is made of 1/8″ aluminum with overlapping surfaces that can be adjusted from 13″ to 30″ at 1.5″ increments using one or both panels and…

DLS TR1 Tremolo and RotoSim

Swirls and Twirls

If you’ve ever played guitar through a Leslie rotating-speaker cabinet, you’re aware of its lush 3D sound. Many guitarists would love to be able to use that sound – and…

VVT Rick Derringer Hyperdrive

Quad-6V6 Hoochie-Koo

To a certain degree, the Vintage Vacuum Tube Amplifiers Rick Derringer Hyperdrive model was born of intimidation. When VVT proprietors Tony Albany and Jim Hill began discussing a signature amp…

Marshall’s EH-1 Echohead, RG-1 Regenerator & RF-1 Reflector

Little Marshalls, Big Tones

Continuing the tradition set forth by the stout little metallic gray/gold boxes of the GV-2 Guv’nor Plus, BB-2 Bluesbreaker II, VT-1 Vibratrem, and others, Marshall recently introduced the EH-1 Echohead…

Mu-FX Tru-Tron 3X

Get Tha Funk Out

The Mu-FX Tru-Tron 3X Price: $369.63 Contact: www.mu-fx.com. Think funk. Think Bootsy Collins’ wacked-out Parliament Funkadelic Space Bass lines. Think Stevie Wonder’s wah’d Clavinet on his ’73 hit “Higher Ground.”…

ToneTron Billy-Rocker 10

Small Is Beautiful

Small amps are big. As venues become increasingly intimate and amplifiers are miked through sound systems rather than muscling-up to broadcast across a full room, you no longer need to…

Tech 21’s Acoustic Fly Rig

String Wings

Adding to its line of compact DI/multi-effects units for traveling guitarists, Tech 21’s Acoustic Fly Rig is more than a collection of tone sweeteners – it contains a gig bag…

Ibanez AF95

Jazzed UP

In 2021, Ibanez re-tooled its hollowbody line to devise big surprises like the Japanese-made AF95, a full-bodied archtop with a traditional vibe thanks to flatwound strings and vintage looks. Let’s…

EHX’s Bad Stone Phase Shifter, C9 Organ Machine, and Pitch Fork Polyphonic Pitch Shifter

Pedal Heaven

When it comes to stompboxes, there are the standard go-to effects that every guitarist, whether a gigging musician or a bedroom noodler, seems to have in his or her arsenal.…

Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster

Flipped Axis

Pity the poor right-handed masses. Emulating the vibe of Jimi’s various Strats has always been tough on them. Some players chase down one of the precious few vintage left-handed Strats,…

Schertler’s JAM 150

Schertler’s JAM 150

Plays Well with Others

Schertler’s JAM150 Price: $1,249.99 (list); $999.99 (street) Info: www.schertler.com Schertler’s JAM150 is a compact combo amp capable of pulling double-duty as an acoustic amp and a multi-instrument PA. Built in…

Lovepedal Purple Plexi

Glory & Overtones

Fans of guitarists with superb tones routinely spot Lovepedal boxes on pedalboards in almost every music genre. From their early days emulating the tones of Billy Gibbons and Jimi Hendrix,…

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ToneConcepts’ The Distillery

100-Proof Tone

While many pedal makers tinker away on effects that exhibit their personal tonal philosophies, the fact is that most don’t play gigs or compose music. Seraphim Marcopoulous of ToneConcepts was…