•  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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Railhammer Hyper Vintage Humbucker

Poles Apart

Railhammer Hyper Vintage Humbucker Price: $139 list / $89 direct Contact: railhammer.com Developed by Joe Naylor of Reverend Guitars, Railhammers are passive humbuckers that use a combination of pole pieces…

EHX Good Vibes, Tone Corset

Rawk Boxes

The musical spirit of the ’60s and ’70s lives again in two of EHX’s latest stompboxes: the Good Vibes analog modulator and Tone Corset analog compressor. Whether it’s chorus and…

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…

Danelectro ’84

Love Struck

The Danelectro name first surfaced on amplifiers in the late 1940s, then later on guitars made with Masonite bodies and lipstick-tube pickups, along with electric sitars, baritone guitars, and “Longhorn”…

Carvin PB4

Carvin PB4

Classic Looks, Modern Function

Carvin PB4 Price: $1,899 (list/base); $869 (street/base) Info: www.carvinguitars.com. Trends come and trends go, but tradition stands the test of time. And while Carvin’s designs stand quite well on their…

National’s Pioneer RP1

Steel Soul

What do you get when you cross a National Duolian with a solidbody electric? Answer: a guitar that Elmore James would have sold his soul for. National’s new Pioneer RP1…

Echopark Ghetto Bird

Sweet Emotion

Echopark Ghetto Bird Price: $6,800 (as reviewed) Contact: www.echoparkguitars.com You know you’re holding something special when the guy who previously borrowed your review guitar was none other than Aerosmith guitarist…

Cicognani Pompeii PP603

Dimensional Echoes

Cicognani Engineering has been making noise with a terrific lineup of amps and effects, earning raves from notable artists like Robben Ford, Kee Marcello, and Phil Campbell. Their Pompeii PP603…

Danelectro Baby Sitar Home Feature Image

Danelectro Baby Sitar

Paint It Sunburst

Legend has it that during a break in the filming of Help!, George Harrison picked up a sitar left behind by the prop men and attempted to play it. Soon…

Visual Sound Effects Pedals

Two-for-one punch

Always on the watch for good-looking, good-sounding, durable pedals, we were recently drawn to three of the latest gizmos from Visual Sound, the Florida-based company that started out building a…

Seymour Duncan SFX-07 Shape Shifter

Vintage Trem Sounds & Beyond

Seymour Duncan’s reputation when it comes to pickups (from dead-on vintage replicas to his own designs) has been well established for decades. And anyone who’s had the pleasure of hearing…

ZT Extortion Expressive Distortion

Mutant Distortion

ZT Amplifiers put their name on the map four years ago with the compact Lunchbox solid-state amp. Now they continue along the road less traveled with the Extortion Expressive Distortion.…

Bayou Guitarworks Hardware

Players often buy a factory aged guitar and swap the plastics and hardware to more accurately represent the overall aesthetic. Bayou Guitarworks’ custom relic’d hardware fits the bill. Artist Denise…

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…

Echopark Ghetto Bird

Sweet Emotion

Echopark Ghetto Bird Price: $6,800 (as reviewed) Contact: www.echoparkguitars.com You know you’re holding something special when the guy who previously borrowed your review guitar was none other than Aerosmith guitarist…

TTS Music BMT Overdrive

TTS Music BMT Overdrive

Fine-Tune Your Crunch

TTS Music BMT Overdrive Price: $175 Info: www.ttspickups.com. No, the “BMT” in the name of TTS Music’s overdrive pedal does not stand for a “bacon, mayo, and tomato.” The initials…

Reverend Hellhound 40/60

One step to "schizo"

Reverend Musical Instru ments founder Joe Naylor’s head is always cranking out cool ideas. A Roberto-Venn graduate who in 1996 sold his amplifier company so he could start building guitars,…

H&D, Running Dog, and Gibson

Downsize, Upmarket L-Style Guitar

In the July issue we looked at affordable L-style flat-tops for the acoustic blues player. This month, we look at similarly inspired instruments, but at a premium price point. All…

Victoria Vic 105

The Victoria VIC 105

Raw And Responsive

Victoria VIC 105 Price: $1,495 Contact: Victoria Amp Co.; phone (630) 820-6400; victoriaamp.com. In the 1990s, Mark Baier put himself on the map making quality reproductions of choice ’50s tweed-amp…

Keeley Halo Dual Echo

Dot Matrix

In this latest Keeley offering, the goal is capturing Andy Timmons’ “Halo” sound, which mines the world of dotted-8th delay effects – you know these sounds from U2 and Pink…

Reverend’s Stage King Series Charger 290

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”…

Bare Knuckle Pickups’ PAT Pend, Flat ’52, and Mule

Bruising Tones

Bare Knuckle Pickups’ PAT Pend, Flat ’52, and Mule Price: $125-$340 Info: www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk. From the ever-expanding world of boutique pickups comes a builder out of southwest England who creates a…

Amptweaker’s FatMetal Distortion

Amptweaker’s FatMetal Distortion

Metal To the Pedal

With all of the subgenres of heavy metal out there, it was only a matter of time before the pedal industry began tweaking its many circuits to meet the needs…

Universal Audio Max and Del-Verb

Smart Stomps

After rolling out several “amp-in-a-box” pedals last year, Universal Audio is back with a fresh line of stompboxes to help guitarists groove. The Max Preamp/Dual Compressor gives models of famous…

Universal Audio Max and Del-Verb

Smart Stomps

After rolling out several “amp-in-a-box” pedals last year, Universal Audio is back with a fresh line of stompboxes to help guitarists groove. The Max Preamp/Dual Compressor gives models of famous…

Homestead Amps HS50

Tone On The Range

So, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Waylon Jennings walk into a bar… No, wait, they walk into a NAMM Show. And, no joke, when they carry their iconic tooled-leather Firebird and…

AnalogMan Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup

AnalogMan Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup

Mr. Clean

AnalogMan’s Jim Weider Big-T Bridge Pickup Price: $135 Info: www.buyanalogman.com Jim Weider is one of the few guitarists who can truly wear the title “Telemaster” without being crushed by the…

Andrews Spectraverb 16

No Limits

Taking inspiration from Fender’s classic AB763 Deluxe Reverb, the hand-wired Andrews Spectraverb 16 uses a pair of JJ 6V6 power tubes (producing 16 watts), a GZ34 rectifier, two 12AX7 and…

DryBell Module 4

Compress Yourself

  Inspired by the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer, Drybell Musical Electronic Laboratory’s Module 4 Compressor adds several highly usable features. Running on a 9-volt adapter, the Module 4 allows users…

Fuchs Clean Machine II

Spotless Tone

The folks at Fuchs Audio Technology know that most guitarists use pedalboards loaded with effects they’ve loved, swapped, upgraded, and considered for years. For them, Fuchs offers the tailor-made Clean…