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Super PickupGiveaway 2025
Win Big! 11 Sets! 11 Winners! Win a set of pickups from one of these sponsors: Deadline is March 15, 2026. Complete the survey below to enter giveaway. One entry…
Chris Cain
Raisin’ Cain
Chris Cain returns with his 15th solo album, and it’s marvelous. Joining forces with Alligator Records, Cain continues his musical…
Bobby Broom plays “Humpty Dumpty”
Chicago native leans into the Benson/Green playbook on “Suspects” Guitarist Bobby Broom has recorded with legends including Kenny Burrell,…
Ode to the King of the Blues
Guitarists Reflect on the Passing of B.B. King
B.B. King was truly peerless. Beyond his ability to pull an audience up via a single long, vibratoed note, he…
Wolf Hoffmann
Mean Business
Traditional heavy metal is still a thriving beast thanks to bands like Accept, whose latest studio album, Too Mean to…
Gibson Falcon 5
Timeless
Drawing inspiration from its classic Skylark amplifiers of the 1950s and ’60s, Gibson is revisiting those beloved tones with the…
Martin D-28 and D-45
Definitive Flat-tops
Martin’s pre-WWII dreadnought guitars set the standard for the modern flat-top, and thus both have been inducted into the VG…
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Rickenbacker’s Electric 12-Strings
Double-bound for Glory
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher founded Electro String in 1931 to manufacture what everyone would soon call “Rickenbacker” guitars. Success came early and their lap steels set standards of quality,…
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ARTISTS
Stroger lays it down on “Bob’s Back in Town”
Chicago Blues Mainstay and His Legendary Bass Enjoy as Chicago mainstay bassist Bob Stroger uses his 1960 Jazz Bass (with…
Steinar Karlsen
Nordic Surf Slinger
Scandinavia is no stranger to good “instro” music. The past 60 years have produced guitar-fueled legends like the Spotnicks (Sweden),…
Harvey Valdes
Switched-On Bach
Ever since Andrés Segovia elevated the nylon-string guitar to a serious classical instrument a century ago, players have been performing the…
Buzz Osborne
Heavy Bass
Over the years, fans have come to expect the unexpected from the Melvins. But they just may have outdone themselves…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS
Gibson Custom Colors in the 1960s
Burning Embers, Chilled Whites
Unlike its rival from the West Coast, Gibson did not readily embrace the concept of offering custom-color finishes. It wasn’t…
Mick Taylor’s ’58 Les Paul Standard
The Ya Ya’s Out!
Hard-edged face of the British Invasion, the Rolling Stones introduced the world to the implements, trappings, and accessories of rock-and-roll…
Basses from Bakersfield
The history of guitar manufacturing in the Bakersfield area of California includes names like Mosrite, Hallmark, and Standel. One of…
Martin OM-18P Plectrum Guitar
While the most commonly played and collected Martin guitars have a six-string neck, the company has also made a number…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
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 Carr Skylark
Desert-Island Amp
The Carr Skylark Price: $2,390 (list) Contact: www.carramps.com If you could own only a single guitar amp – horror of…
Walden Sean Harkness 12-String, CG4070E
Grand-Auditorium Cousins
Walden Sean Harkness 12-String, CG4070E Price: $1,100 (Sean Harkness Model); $1,350 (CG4070E-CERT) Info: www.waldenguitars.com. With 16 years of producing attractive,…
Fractal Audio Systems AX8
Box Of Rock
Thanks to the digital revolution, guitarists can plug into a small box and access a world of sounds unimaginable a…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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More Personal
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Rare Pioneer
Supro Comet 1610RT
Desert-Island Jams
Supro’s Comet 1610RT just may be the perfect desert island amp – a high-gain, low-watt 1×10 combo that maybe doesn’t…
The Gibson Starfire TR 1000 RVT
Trans-Galactic Toneway
Relatively unsung among early entrants to the field of solid-state guitar amplifiers, Gibson was the first high-output, high-quality manufacturer to…
25 Most Valuable Amplifiers
Text by Dave Hunter Data compiled by Alan Greenwood and Gil Hembree Vintage Guitar is marking 25 years of publication…
Brian Setzer
Sparking Another Rockabilly Riot
Three decades, umpteen records, and several stellar bands into his career, and Brian Setzer still makes rockabilly sound fresh and…
