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

Production-Line Custom
After 20-plus years with Fender, where he co-founded and helped guide the renowned Custom Shop, John Page struck out on his own to start John Page Custom. One of the guru’s…

Double Duty
Michigan-based Mojo Hand Effects has been building a variety of hand-assembled pedals since 2010. Their latest, the Swim Team, pulls double duty as a chorus and flanger packed into a…

The Orange Rocker 15 Terror
Small-footprint amp heads – tube and solidstate – are all the rage and getting better all the time. Case in point, the Orange Rocker 15 Terror. At just 15 pounds,…
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
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
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,
Set to Out-Do
Reverend Charger 290 Guitar Reverend Musical Instruments’ luthier/boss Joe Naylor singlehandedly designs every Reverend guitar, and chooses their components and materials. And in some cases, Naylor provides specs for “external”…

The New Vintage
Most vintage aficionados admire the grand old acoustic archtops of the 1920s and ’30s, but admire them from afar. They’re beautifully built and boast lovely tone, but they have limitations…

“T” For Texas
Houston is the closest major U.S. port to the tropical hardwoods of South and Central America, so it makes sense that Ellis Guitars makes good use of them. Grabbing…
18 Watts of Bliss
For nearly 20 years, Dan Boul and Peter Stroud have been close friends. In a bond secured by music, particularly guitars and amps, the two have gone through the phases…

Mr. Clean
The Roland Corporation was born in 1972 and just a few years later introduced its landmark Jazz Chorus JC-120 amplifier. To celebrate the half-century mark, the company has reissued a…
Scale-Sized Kicks
Epiphone’s ES-339 PRO Price: $400 street Info: www.epiphone.com. The Gibson ES-335 quickly revealed its versatility and tone following its introduction in 1958 – all warm ’n’ woody like a jazz…
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
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
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
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
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
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

Swiss Army Hybrid
PRS hits on its long-running trifecta – versatility, playability, aesthetic appeal – with its new twist on the electric/acoustic hybrid, the SE Custom 24 Semi-Hollow Piezo. The visuals hook you…

Holiest of Holies
Amid this golden age of music gear, the Analog Man King of Tone Overdrive, first produced in 2005 in collaboration with Jim Weider, heads a distinguished list of “Holy Grail”…
Zen and the Art of Tone Maintenance
Budda’s Chakra and ZenMan Pedals Price: $149.99 Contact: www.budda.com Best known in guitar circles as an admired amp builder, Budda has released a pile of new stompboxes that cover all…
A New Breed of L-Style
Picture the archetypal 1930s blues man, photographed with a studio backdrop, jaunty hat, knowing leer…. What else do you see? A guy with not too much money, that’s what! That’s…

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…
We Don't Got To Show You No Stinking Headroom!
The Mini Z is amp builder Dr. Z’s (a.k.a. Mike Zaite) entry into the low-watt/single-power-tube practice/recording category of amps. Extremely compact at under one cubic foot in size, and weighing…
Old-School Bang Without Breaking the Bank
For five decades after he built his first guitar amp in 1952, Jim Frenzel designed tube and solidstate equipment for the military, FAA, and Texas Instruments. But it wasn’t until…

Chemical Reaction
If you‘re a “first impressions mean a lot” kind of gearhead, DNA Analogic’s line of effects pedals may just win your heart the instant you crack open the box(es). Housed…
Tonebone Pedals
Radial Engineering’s Tonebone distortion pedals have been making serious “noise” in the few short months since their introduction. Whether online or in print, the good word has spread quickly, and…
New 'Glas Splash
If you were at the 1969 NAMM show in Chicago, perhaps you saw what was most regarded as that year’s show-stopping piece of gear – the Ampeg Dan Armstrong “see-through”…

Cry No More!
Israel-based Arteffect’s new Bonnie wah pedal is an accurate re-creation of the highly soughtafter vintage Vox Clyde McCoy wah. The “Clyde wah,” you’ll recall, was designed to help guitar players…

Club Combo
Striking out from its more historically inspired models like the Black Magick and Delta King, Supro’s new Montauk 1×10 combo tacks a more-original line and, in the process, throws down…

During four years of back and forth, Reverend Guitars and legendary punk-rock bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, Stooges), developed a partnership that ultimately produced the Wattplower signature bass. The Wattplower…
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…
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…

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…

Germany’s BSM is among the rare specialist among modern stompbox builders; their focus is one thing – making treble boosters (albeit in a variety of flavors), and their lineup uses…

Convincing Crunch
When speaking of guitar amplifiers that have become part of rock-and-roll lore, you best mention the iconic Orange brand as helping pave the way – their bright tolex and pictographed…
Click to Customize
Moniker Dixie Solid Price: $849 (base) Info: www.monikerguitars.com. Moniker Guitars recently launched a line of customizable electric guitars that players design using an online configurator. Customizing a Moniker begins with…

Practiced Past
When you check out an amp like the Fender Mustang II, you may wonder if the term “practice amp” still applies anymore. Once upon a time, a practice amp was…
The Luthier's Art, Defined
Austin-area guitar builder/repairman Tony Nobles was, like everyone else in in high school wood shop class, needing an idea for something to build. Unimpressed with classmates’ ideas to construct various…