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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …
Premier Twin 12
Sometimes it takes just the slightest aesthetic twist to get an amp nut all worked up. This 1960 Premier Twin…

Mustangs of the West
Down at the Palomino
Los Angeles’ all-female country quintet has a new record featuring 12 super-cool songs. Produced by Kirk Pasich and Colin Devlin,…

Iron Maiden
Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast
From the 2019 tour, this two-CD live set from Mexico captures the British metalers in top form, four decades after…

Whooooo Wal You?
John Entwistle’s fretless ’78 Wal
Wal began building electric basses in the early 1970s as a collaboration between Englishmen Pete Stevens and Ian Waller. Their…

Glenn Phillips
Cult-Guitar Icon
For more than 40 years, Glenn Phillips has been an underground hero of the guitar. His solo albums, unusual choices…

John Sykes 1959-2025
Remembering a Heavy Hero
The guitar universe was rocked on January 20 by the announcement of John Sykes’ death from cancer, at age 65.…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS

Larry McCray
Redemption Blues
Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where…

Bob Cowsill Plays a Topical Tune
New Cowsills album is an impressive self-contained work Before the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds, The Cowsills scored four Top…

Mike Minasi
Better Building Through Mental Shedding
Mike Minasi’s trip to his first CD, Body Resilient, included several detours, including one that saw him step away from…

Rory Gallagher’s Photo-Finish
Legend’s Best
The year 1977 saw upheaval in rock and roll, from the death of Elvis Presley and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

The Martin 000-18HS
According to Martin company records and research by late Martin Historian Mike Longworth, Cable Piano Company, in Atlanta, special-ordered at…
Spectrum 5
Joining playful mid-’60s cultural icons such as the Ford Mustang, NBC’s “The Monkees,” the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” and Cassius Clay, the…

Star Stomps
Famous Sounds Abound in New Book
Stompboxes inspire their own special mania. While the allure of guitars is obvious with their colorful, curvaceous looks, effects are…
Peavey RJ-IV
Peavey RJ-IV bass, serial number 04938996. Photo: Bill Ingalls Jr. Instrument courtesy of Naffaz Skota. Americans by the millions “know”…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Godin A6 Ultra Baritone
Sub Sandwich
The basic premise of a baritone is that it allows guitar players to occasionally twang genuine bass notes – not…

Xotic Guitar XSS-1 Super S Style
Tribute To The King
Xotic’s S-style guitar line pays homage to the man who revolutionized rock guitar in the ’80s. Hint: He was hot…

Guild D-50 Standard
Rosewood Renaissance
With a tradition going back more than 70 years, Guild Guitars was there from the beginning of rock and roll,…

Friedman Plex
Mystique Maker
Dave Friedman built his brand (and reputation) by making supercharged Marshall-inspired amps, and his latest hones in on one of…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

Lyle Workman
Orchestral Maneuvers
You might not recognize his name, but in the last 30 years, Lyle Workman and his guitars have backed Sting,…

Flamin’ Groovies
Live 1971 San Francisco
Flamin’ Groovies are best known for the ’76 power-pop gem “Shake Some Action,” but this show – recorded five years…

Classics: Arena-Rock Alternative Amps
Mad Maxed
As rock started hitting the big time in the mid ’60s, it became clear to guitar-amplifier manufacturers that 100 watts…
Doobies, Brothers
A Discussion with Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons
American music rarely is more pure than when it comes from the minds, hands, and mouths of the Doobie Brothers.…









































