Check This Action: One Sax, Three Guitars

June 7, 2023 · Dan Forte

It starts with a tenor saxophone floating above spare electric guitar arpeggios. After a dipsy-doodle cadenza, the sax states a…

Carla Olson & Mick Taylor

Sway: The Best of Carla Olson & Mick Taylor

April 12, 2023 · Bret Adams

There’s a timelessness to the earthy, powerful rock and roll captured in this collection. The blend of Textones founder Olson’s…

Fender’s ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb

Fender’s ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb

Improving on a Good Thing

April 19, 2016 · Phil Feser

Fender’s ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb Price: $999.99 list Contact: www.fender.com In 1968, Fender gave its amp line what collectors today…

LSL Instruments’ Lucid OD and OG OD

Lively Drives

December 5, 2025 · Pete Prown

LSL Instruments is best known for high-end Leo-style guitar builds, but they’ve also started delving into overdrive pedals. The Lucid…

Marshall Amplifiers

From Birth to the 21st Century

April 11, 2018 · Edward B. Driscoll Jr.

From the first JTM to models for Clapton and Townshend, Jim Marshall has been building amps since the early 1960s.…

Instro-Meister Eric Penna

September 7, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

Blues Switch-Up in Trabants Eric Penna’s main gig is playing bass for the garage/surf band Insect Surfers, but he side-hustles…

  • Rik Emmett

    Rik Emmett

    Ten Telecaster Tales

    At the risk of starting a brawl, Rik Emmett’s guitar work was arguably too good for Triumph. As evidence, his latest project centers on a custom-built Loucin that inspired both…

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ARTISTS

Pop ’N Hiss: Lou Reed

Definitive Riffs- Lou Reed’s Rock ’N Roll Animal and Live

December 2, 2021 · Willie G. Moseley

Eccentric and enigmatic, composer/singer Lou Reed gained notoriety in the mid-’60s while fronting the NYC band Velvet Underground. Not particularly…

Rick Vito’s Tale Of Two Grails

Find of a Lifetime

December 6, 2022 · Ward Meeker

Whether it was by watching “Bandstand” on TV or learning the licks of Duane Eddy, Chuck Berry, or the Ventures,…

Susan Santos’ Blues-Rock Riffage

July 31, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Solo take on “Have Mercy” Susan Santos grabbed her LsL T Bone, plugged into a Bugera V5 Infinium amp, and…

Onstage with Rainbow in 2016. Blackmore 2016: Fabrice Demessence.

Blackmore’s Best

July 11, 2017 · Doug Yellow Bird

To help denote the 45th anniversary of the release of Machine Head, we asked subscribers to Vintage Guitar’s electronic newsletter,…


CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

GIBSON-EB-2-HOME-MAIN-BIG

Gibson EB-2

Kalamazoo’s Biggest Bass Innovation?

October 22, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

In the mid 1950s, Gibson president Ted McCarty was paying close attention to two new instruments impacting the musical-instruments market…

Blues guitarist Charlie Apicella’s “Booze and Blues” and “Just Like a Woman”

September 29, 2025 · Vintage Guitar

Honoring B.B., Rainey Being V.P. of the North Jersey Blues Society isn’t the only thing that separates Charlie Apicella from…

Six-String Basses from the 1950s and ’60s

The Big Twang!

February 4, 2022 · Peter Stuart Kohman

Electric bass, bass guitar, baritone guitar; four, five, or six strings – many varieties of low-tuned instruments are available today.…

Popa Chubby’s Dangerous Attitude

November 23, 2023 · Vintage Guitar

NYC blues beast rips on “I Don’t Want Nobody A fixture in New York City blues joints and familiar face…


NEWSWIRE

APPROVED GEAR

Martin 00-28 Modern Deluxe

Contemporary Vintage

June 29, 2023 · Pete Prown

Not every acoustic needs to blow the walls out with volume and projection; there are critical styles of guitar that…

Fender’s Classic Player Strat HH

Fender’s Classic Player Strat HH

The Humbucker Paradox

November 5, 2015 · Pete Prown

Fender’s Classic Player Strat HH Price: $949.99 (list) Contact: www.fender.com One of the great guitar myths is that pro Fender…

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

Pedal Heaven

January 25, 2017 · Pete Prown

When it comes to stompboxes, there are the standard go-to effects that every guitarist, whether a gigging musician or a…

Andy Green Pedals’ Seaverb

Endless Reverb

July 3, 2019 · Phil Feser

Andy Green offers “basic building blocks” of tone – a concise lineup of effects including distortion, overdrive, fuzz, and reverb.…

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Aerosmith

1971: The Road Starts Hear

March 10, 2023 · Bret Adams

This long-lost relic was recorded before the band’s 1973 debut LP, with guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford (aged 21…

Jim Lauderdale

Harder Country

June 25, 2025 · Rich Kienzle

Jim Lauderdale has had three busy years. 2021’s Hope, which he calls “a very uplifting album,” emerged from the pandemic.…

VG Q&A: Parlor Mystery

Plus, a Pro’s List of Repair Glues

January 2, 2026 · Dan Erlewine

My neighbor has an old parlor guitar that he asked me to clean up after years in storage. Inside the…

Benson Model 300H

Wrecking Ball

January 6, 2023 · Dave Hunter

Even with all the excellent guitar amps available by the late ’60s, nothing was quite good enough for jazz and…

Greg Lake

Recalling the Music

October 10, 2014 · Willie G. Moseley

Bassist/vocalist/songwriter Greg Lake came to notice in 1969 as member of King Crimson and his membership in Emerson, Lake and…

 Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai

Bass Convergence

November 7, 2025 · Oscar Jordan

Recorded at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on their 2024 U.S. tour, G3 Reunion Live reunites the virtuosos who…

Andy Summers

The Next Phase

January 10, 2020 · Willie G. Moseley

Best known for his innovative guitar playing in the Police, veteran English guitarist Andy Summers was into other genres of…

Get Your Copy Now

January 24, 2024 · Doug Yellow Bird

Limited Quantities! Pushing hard to compete with Fender and be seen as hip, in 1958, Gibson gave its Les Paul…

Walter Trout

Walter Trout

Battling Back

August 24, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

In his decades of playing, Walter Trout has served as lead guitarist for John Mayall and Canned Heat, and forged…

Jeff Hanna

Decades of Dirt

May 9, 2023 · Ward Meeker

One’s taste in music usually starts in the home, where immersion can fuel the subconscious. Jeff Hanna’s parents loved Ella…

Canned Heat

Finyl Vinyl

July 3, 2025 · Dan Forte

In the mid/late ’60s, the top American groups of the Blues Revival were Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Los…

Grez Mendocino Short Scale Bass

Time-Machine Tone

April 3, 2023 · Michael Shirek

In the beginning, there was the Precision Bass. Following Leo Fender’s revelation, things branched out in all directions as builders…

Don Felder

Don Felder

Six-Stringed Summer Stock

June 23, 2015 · Willie G. Moseley

Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder is spending the summer with a few friends. On an extended tour with Styx and…

Steve Hillage

Echoes of Earlier Times

April 18, 2019 · Willie G. Moseley

Steve Hillage has followed his muse through 40 years making music as a member of the psychedelic band Gong, a…

The Legendary Tones Lynch Mod

No-mod Hot Rod

April 5, 2022 · Tom Guerra

Designed for guitarist George Lynch, the Lynch Mod introduces an additional, non-permanent gain stage to the classic Marshall circuit. The…

Tyler Morris

Have Guitar Will Travel – 036 Featuring Tyler Morris

October 7, 2020 · Art Department

The latest episode of “Have Guitar Will Travel,” features host James Patrick Regan speaking with Tyler Morris. They discuss what…

Shawn Starski

His Own Blues

December 2, 2013 · John Heidt

After spending nearly a decade with harp ace Jason Ricci, guitarist Shawn Starski has stepped out with a self-titled album…

Fretprints: Robben Ford

The Early Years: Emergence of a Blues/Jazz Virtuoso

January 24, 2022 · Wolf Marshall

“Who is this kid?” gasped incredulous attendees of the Guitar Explosion festival at the Hollywood Bowl in June, 1973. It…

BluGuitar Amp1

Tiny Tube Terror

July 10, 2019 · Pete Prown

The trend toward the miniaturization of guitar gear shows no signs of slowing. Thanks to modern technology, guitarists are fitting…

Cliff Goodwin

335 Reunion

April 18, 2014 · Willie G. Moseley

Cliff Goodwin was catapulted into the big time on a decade-long stint with Joe Cocker that began in the late…

Fender Player Jaguar

Updated Offset

October 15, 2021 · Rich Maloof

Priced at entry level and built in Mexico, Fender’s Player Series provides affordable access to Fender’s most iconic solidbodies. The…

Mr. Smith goes to Rudy’s

“Upstairs” at a famed NYC guitar boutique

June 10, 2020 · Art Department

Nashville has Music Row and London has Soho, but if your heart starts palpitating at the mere mention of carved…

1965 Epiphone Emperor

December 3, 2021 · George Gruhn

The Epiphone Emperor has a long, convoluted history. It first appeared in Epiphone’s catalog in late 1935 as a response…

Have Guitar Will Travel 081 – G. Love

September 2, 2022 · James Patrick Regan

Host James Patrick Regan welcomes singer, rapper, and musician G. Love to episode 82 of “Have Guitar Will Travel.” They…

Billy Strings

Live, Volume 1

August 13, 2025 · Rich Kienzle

Billy Strings has travelled far from his days as bluegrass flatpicking prodigy, though that style remains a linchpin of his…

Marty Friedman’s Melodic Grandeur

June 26, 2024 · Vintage Guitar

Vintage Strat, new style on “Illumination” A devout Jackson user with a longstanding signature model, Fender Strat that’s also heard…

PRS Swamp Ash Special SE

Bolt-On Beauty

September 17, 2024 · Pete Prown

Known historically for its set-neck guitars, PRS has produced a number of killer bolt-ons, like the CE and Silver Sky.…

CopperSound Strategy

Strat-Jack Boost

October 13, 2022 · Bob Dragich

CopperSound pedals started in the winter of 2014 as a group of friends in Massachusetts who wanted to build pedals…

Tsakalis Experience, Emma ON-1 Okto-Nøjs, and Mad Professor Twimble

World Sounds

July 3, 2019 · Pete Prown

It seems that every other stompbox on the market has dual-footswitch functionality, packing two entirely different circuits into one housing.…