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Artists
Dave Gant’s Amp Collection
Key Collection: Nashville pro Dave Gant fosters an impressive gathering of amps
Dave Gant grew up in Ada, Oklahoma, and while the city of 17,000 will never be confused with Memphis or Nashville in terms of musical impact, it is the birthplace of a handful of noteworthy personalities including country singer Blake Shelton, NFL tight end Jeremy Shockey, and Gant, who when he’s not serving as musical […]
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Twenty-seven years after his debut album at age 17, Monster Mike Welch delivers perhaps his best disc yet with Nothing But Time. Co-produced with multi-instrumentalist Kid Andersen, it features bass legend Jerry Jemmott, who worked with Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, and countless others. A commanding guitarist and music scholar, Welch flirts with heroes from Magic […]
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This month we feature Gary Clark, Jr., The Beatles, Deep Purple, Johnny A, Scott Hebderson, Kinga Glyk, D.K. Harrell, Frank BiBussolo, and more! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to the complete list HERE. […]
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If the ’70s were the era of good times and excess following the tumultuous ’60s, the boogie band would be its champion. Boogie was a leveler – a style, feeling, and groove – affecting everyone from Mississippi bluesman John Lee Hooker (“Boogie Chillen”) and Arthur Smith in early rock and roll (“Guitar Boogie”) to blues-rockers […]
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Music
John McLaughlin
The Montreux Years
This retrospective from the Swiss jazz festival spans 28 years, covering miles of jazz-rock territory. In 1984, McLaughlin formed a new Mahavishnu lineup, heard in “Radio Activity.” McLaughlin’s solo opens with a hammer-on lick that’s part Van Halen, part McCoy Tyner – before delivering a terrifying demonstration of picking dexterity. “Friendship,” a 1978 recording with […]
Artists
John Tropea
A Life in the Studios
John Tropea has spent much of his life in a studio, playing guitar, helping make hit records for people with names other than his own. Why? One reason is his father’s gas station. “My dad owned a gas station in New York and he told me he had picked up a car belonging to Tony […]
VG Approved Gear
Strymon’s Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker
Smart Box
Strymon’s Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker Price: $299 (list) Contact: www.strymon.net It’s scary, wielding a stompbox that’s smarter than you. Scary and thrilling. Strymon’s Deco pedal is designed to provide the analog tape effects of a vintage recording studio, without the tape. Think Sun Studios in a box. Abbey Road in a can. Electric Ladyland […]
Artists
Todd Rundgren
Rock’s True Renaissance Man
For 50 years, Todd Rundgren has been compiling one the most eclectic and impressive resumés in music. From forming the Nazz in 1967 to stints with Utopia, Runt, The New Cars, and a successful solo career, his accomplishments as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, engineer, and record producer are rarely equaled by even his most-distinguished contemporaries. After also establishing […]
Spotify
2023 August Issue on Spotify
This month we feature Steve Lukather, Dominic Miller, Steve Khan, Sam Kiszka, Selwyn Birchwood, Dave Davies, Brennen Leigh, and much more! Spotify is free or available without ads via paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to the complete list HERE. Don’t miss Vintage […]
Artists
Andy Powell
The Wishbone Forges on
Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell isn’t caught in a time warp. True, he’s the sole remaining member of the English foursome that proffered a twin-lead guitar sound that took the band to acclaim in the early 1970s, but under the aegis of Powell (VG June/July ’92, April ’98), Wishbone Ash has toured incessantly and released […]
Artists
Steve Stevens
Return of the Ray-Gun Ace
Best known as Billy Idol’s guitar ace for the past 25 years, Steve Stevens won early fame for Idol’s 1983 smash “Rebel Yell,” featuring his scorching licks and signature “ray gun” effects. Within a few years, he was among rock’s most in-demand axemen, recording with Michael Jackson, Robert Palmer, Joni Mitchell and his own group, […]
VG Approved Gear
Z.Vex Fuzz Probe
There-Mayhem
The Z.Vex Fuzz Factory pedal unleashed sonic possibilities ranging from a horde of wasps to the (presumed) sound of the end of the world and became a go-to stompbox for extreme-rock and heavy metal guitarists. The company’s latest twist, the Fuzz Probe, takes the Fuzz Factory and adds a Theremin-like proximity control, giving its user […]
Music
Pat Metheny
Road To The Sun
Jazz guitar visionary Metheny is so admired he gets other people to perform his music. Road To The Sun features works performed by Grammy-winning classical guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Vieaux performs a four-movement guitar suite for solo guitar titled “Four Paths Of Light.” The next composition is in six movements […]
VG Approved Gear
Louis Electric Gattone
Play The Blues
Louis Electric Gattone Price: $2,595 (list) Contact: www.louiselectricamps.com Got the blues? Have we got the amp for you. Louis Rosano has been building boutique amplifiers from his workshop in New Jersey for 20 years, his first inspired by a ’58 Fender narrow-panel tweed Twin. His version was called the Twinmaster, and one of them wound […]
Music
Gretchen Menn
Abandon All Hope
Magnum Opus
Gretchen Menn stands alone. One might argue that she’s the female counterpart to Steve Morse. Both are aviators, both play ungodly guitar, and both are ersed in the European traditions of the Classical period. This was the era that spawned composers Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Salieri, and so on. Both Menn and Morse are also big […]
Spotify
2024 January Issue on Spotify
This month we feature Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Clapton, Leo Lyons, Tony Gilkyson, Chris Stapleton, Wes Montgomery, Foghat, Jimi Hendrix, and more! Spotify is free or available without ads via a paid subscription. Go to www.spotify.com and search “Vintage Guitar magazine,” or if you already have an account Listen to the complete […]
Artists
Dallas Perkins dazzles on “Mexican Puppets”
Dallas Perkins: Elemental Experiments Progressive-rock shredder Dallas Perkins brings it with “Mexican Puppets,” a track from his new instrumental album, “Experimental Truth.” That’s his ’94 PRS Custom 24, and the album also features his ’98 Custom 24. Read our review in the March issue. Read Now!
Artists
Ray Cummins – I’ll See You In My Dreams
Ray Cummins Plays the 1956 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype “Dark Eyes” VG ace online tutor Ray Cummins uses the famed ’56 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 prototype to play “I’ll See You In My Dreams” through a ’66 Princeton. Dubbed “Dark Eyes” because Chet used it to play the song at the Opry in ’56, […]
Artists
Randy Napoleon’s Rust Belt Roots
Jazz prof brings spirit and feel Randy Napoleon plays the 2007 prototype for Benedetto’s Bravo Deluxe while doing this exclusive take on his original tune “The Man Who Sells Flowers.” You’ll hear the guitar throughout his new album, “Rust Belt Roots.” Catch our review in the May issue. Read Now!
Classic Instruments
1963 Fender 6G7-A Bandmaster
Last of the Oxbloods
Those who love vintage amplifiers are often fascinated by little anomalies that present themselves in an otherwise period-correct specimen, and when that amp is a mint-condition sweetheart from the golden age, so much the better. Finding a 60-year-old guitar amp in near-showroom condition is always a breathtaking experience, but it’s also a surprise when said […]
Music
Metallica
72 Seasons
Metallica’s 11th album is a blast from the band’s hard-charging past, and does not disappoint. As the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett, frontman/guitarist James Hetfield, and bassist Robert Trujillo get brutal for 77 minutes of bone-shattering riffs and teeth-rattling beats. “If it’s too loud, you’re too old,” as […]