•  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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Positive Grid’s Experience Hendrix For Spark & BIAS FX 2

Get Experienced

In the pantheon of guitar gods, few are studied to the degree of Hendrix. And, given the warp speed at which tech moves today, it should come as no surprise…

Carr Bel-Ray 1×12

Brit-Based Invasion

Carr Amplifiers are renowned for their build quality and vintage-inspired tones. Not one to rest on his laurels, founder Steve Carr continually pushes the envelope with designs that capture the…

Taylor 814ce

Taylor 814ce

New Life at 40

Taylor 814ce Price: $4,378 (list); $3,399 (street) Info: www.taylorguitars.com Of all the guitars in Taylor’s product line, the 814ce is one of the most popular. Most manufacturers are loath to…

Eastwood Black Box Series

Stomp City

Eastwood Guitars promises retro-themed gear at wallet-reassuring prices, as seen in their new Black Box Series of stompboxes. Among the first flight are the BB-01 Manalishi Drive, BB-03 Blue Vibe,…

Vox Cooltron Pedals

Look, Ma! No AC Cords!

We’ve harped on the fact before that there are so many great-sounding overdrive/distortion pedals on the market today. And regardless of whether they employ silicon or germanium transistors, guitarists generally…

Blackstar Amped 2

Satisfying Sounds

Blackstar’s entry to the growing market of “all in one” compact amplifier/effects units claims to offer a high degree of usability built around famous tones – but don’t they all?…

Michael Kelly Custom Collection 55 Ebony

Kelly Tele

Is there a better platform for guitar customization than the Tele? Easily sourced lumber combine with straightforward electronics and hardware for a characteristic sound. Michael Kelly et al have been…

Ceriatone’s OTS Mini 20 Overtone Lunchbox

Meal Ticket

For years, Ceriatone fans have suggested the amp maker offer its stellar Overtone Special sound in a scaled-down, affordable package. The OTS Mini 20 was Ceriatone’s answer. The control layout…

The Winfield Dust Devil

Devil’s In The Details

Unlike most amp builders who take up the challenge to create amplifiers that replicate the sounds of the 1960s, Winfield Thomas was actually wielding those sounds as a musician in…

The Carr Artemus

A Blend of Dick, Leo, and Steve

Steve Carr made a name for himself building fine amplifiers such as the Slant 6V and the Rambler. His Artemus model used four EL84 tubes, but was not a subtle variation on a classic design,…

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Singular Sound BeatBuddy

Drums Even You Can Play

Everyone knows a good drummer joke. Or two. Drummers are indeed a special breed. Singular Sound’s BeatBuddy drum-machine pedal, however, is no joke. And as the first drum-machine-in-a-pedal designed for…

Carr Amplifiers’ Mercury V

Carolina Combo

Back in June 2003, Carr’s original eight-watt Mercury combo earned high praise in VG for its top-of-the-line components, attention to detail, and wide-ranging “Tone of the Gods” voicing. Recently, Steve…

From Badass to Bonamassa

New Pedals from MRX, Cry Baby, and Way Huge

The latest from Dunlop includes a pair of overdrives and a fresh addition to the venerable Cry Baby wah family. The Custom Badass Modified O.D., latest addition to the MXR…

Immix Eleven V-Series 30 Amp/Cab

Immix Eleven V-Series 30 Amp/Cab

Lights! Sound! Action!

Immix Eleven V-Series 30 Amp/Cab Price: Amp $1,995 (list); cabinet $895 (list) Contact: www.immix11.com Remember the first time you encountered the Rick 331LS Light Show guitar? You thought, wow, that’s…

Railhammer’s Nuevo 90 Humcutter Set

Joe Naylor has a long history of designing and marketing everything in the music business from high-end amps, guitars, basses, speakers, and effects pedals to his latest Railhammer pickups. His…

Relic Guitars The Hague T-Style

Relic Guitars The Hague T-Style

Aged to Perfection

Relic Guitars The Hague is a Dutch builder that produces, obviously, relic’d guitars. Mostly using the archetypal Strat and Tele shapes, the company sells their axes online and often for…

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…

Guild Polara Kim Thayil

Get Your Grunge

With Soundgarden, guitarist Kim Thayil helped define the grunge movement. His unusual weapon of choice was the Guild S-100 Polara, a solidbody often unfairly compared to the Gibson SG. Soundgarden…

The Supro Hampton

Island Unto Itself

Supro’s vintage Ozark guitar is famed as Jimi Hendrix’s first axe. According to legend, his father bought him an off-white ’57 Model 1560S in 1959 from Seattle’s Myers Music for…

Fender Player II Series Telecaster

Twang Banger

As the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar fast approaches its 75th birthday, Fender continues to offer variations on the theme. But the biggest takeaway from the design’s diamond anniversary…

Airline ’59 Custom 1P and Epiphone ’61 Casino 50th Anniversary

Having a Rave-Up!

Fifteen years ago, you couldn’t give away some of the less-popular guitars from the ’60s, whether they were models with P-90s or cheapo imports from Japan and Germany. Today, however,…

Martin D-42 Modern Deluxe

Boom Box

Martin’s new Modern Deluxe line offers a tantalizing idea – a traditional-looking/playing premium acoustic, but with high-tech innovations under the hood. Being a revised take on an iconic dreadnought, it…

Flying High Again

The Eastwood Airline ’59 3P

Long before the brazen, pointy electrics of the 1980s, Airline created a model with all kinds of modern angles and attitude. The original Airline electric guitars were made by Valco…

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…

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Echopark Clarence

Wayback Machine

Gabriel Currie’s Echopark Guitars have been played around the world by some of the music industry’s heaviest hitters. His is a line of handmade gems that just ooze vintage flavor.…

The Pinter SB1-R

Days of Sustain

Mike Pinter conceived his new SB1-R as a do-it-all “rock star” guitar that would combine design concepts and tone choices in an attractive package. The SB1-R starts with an alder…

Rob Wrobel Le Voyage Lace III

Boxed Up

Cigar-box guitars are a 19th-century creation that today are enjoying a trendy surge in popularity, and attracting the design expertise of some talented folks. Why? Well, because cigar box guitars…

Walla Walla Maverick Pro Series

To a T

Walla Walla has carved a niche in the world of highly customized guitars and basses in the tradition of those time-honored Leo Fender archetypes. Their Maverick Pro Series offers up…

Fender American Professional Jazzmaster

Return Of The Rebel

From the get-go, Fender’s Jazzmaster was the black sheep of the family – that wild-at-heart uncle your ma warned you about. Happily, it’s happily back in the lineup with the…

Earthquaker Devices’ Avalanche Run

Test for Echo

The story of Earthquaker Devices begins with Jamie Stillman fixing his own overdrive pedal and then deciding to get into the pedal business himself. Twelve years later, Stillman’s Earthquaker Devices…