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Duke Robillard – Lowdown
Vintage Guitar is happy to offer the premier of the new music video by Grammy nominee Duke Robillard. “Lowdown” is the first single from his upcoming album, Blast Off!, set…
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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…

Jorge Garcia
Led Bop
Jazz covers of rock songs often fall flat on their face, but Cuban-American guitarist Jorge Garcia nails it on Crossover.…

Steve Carr
Twenty-Five Years of Tonemaking
In the mid ’90s, Steve Carr was a guitarist playing weekends and working weeknights as a waiter in a swank…

Wampler Effects Pedals
Filling the Gaps
Brian Wampler, who developed a reputation first for modding effects pedals, then for building originals including a custom overdrive for…

Pop ’N Hiss: Vanilla Fudge’s Near The Beginning
Proto-Prog Tour De Force
Rock fans recall the New York quartet Vanilla Fudge for its dramatic reworkings of pop hits; the band melded classical…

JHS Charlie Brown Overdrive
Beautiful Noise
While few guitarists get the opportunity to plug into every vintage Marshall amp and hear their distinguishing tonal characteristics, most…

Carr Skylark Special 1×12
Take Flight
Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced…
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Carr Skylark Special 1×12
Take Flight
Arriving a little more than 10 years after the original Skylark, Carr Amplifiers’ new Skylark Special adds versatility and enhanced tonal depths to squeeze a lot more into this diminutive…
ARTISTS

Sonny Burgess
1929-2017
Sonny Burgess, one of the last of the great Sun Records stars, died August 18. He was 88 and had…

Hannu Könönen: Surf Stirred with Rautalanka
From Finland’s Icy Fjords Hannu Könönen used his home-assembled guitar to play “Lets’s Surf to the Dawn,” a track from…

Eric Gales
Reinvigorated Blues
Over the years, there have been instances when one renowned blues-rock guitarist or another found sobriety in the nick of…

John Pizzarelli
Better Days
In just over a one-week period in April of 2020, John Pizzarelli turned 60, lost his father (famed jazz guitarist…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Gibson’s Experimental Archtop
Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s, and his company refined the design with f-shaped sound holes in…

Familiar Names Create Music as J&B Brothers
Austin-Powered
The J&B Brothers make a sound equal parts Texas country, blues, folkie, rock, jazz, and soul – the spices that…

Italian Smorgasbord
The Goya Rangemaster 116 SB
American guitars made in the 1950s and ’60s constitute an almost-holy canon, yet most players in that era took their…

Fender’s 1961 Showman
The Show Must Go On
When Fender stepped up from the tweed-covered amps of the 1950s to the radically redesigned Tolex amps of the ’60s,…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight
Fenders American Vintage Series
Devilish in Detail
Fender American Vintage Series Price: $2,400 retail/$1,999.99 street (’52 Telecaster); $2,874 retail/$2,299.99 street (’59 Stratocaster); $2,874 retail/$2,299 street (’65 Jazzmaster…

Magnets and Magic
The PAF – Yesterday, Today
When it came to launching a solidbody electric guitar, Fender beat Gibson to the punch with its Broadcaster model in…

Valvetech Suplex
A Kinder, Gentler Plexi
Used by rock royalty, the 100-watt Marshall Model 1959 Super Lead unleashed hellacious tones. Problem was, it was ridiculously loud…
Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo
Tone to the Third Squared
The Electro-Harmonix Epitome, Tone Tattoo Price: $491.84 list (Epitome) and $292.35 list (Tone Tattoo) Info: www.ehx.com The concept is smart…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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And an Archtop Mystery
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Supergroup Alpha

Classics: September 2021
Fenton Robinson’s Gibson ES-225
Kevin Ludwig first became aware of Fenton Robinson in 1975, when he heard Boz Scaggs’ version of “Somebody Loan Me…

Fender’s Musicmaster and Duo‑Sonic
Little Brothers
Often forgotten, the diminutive student-grade duo went from concept to reality in short order to capitalize on teenagers taking up…

Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers Change Gears
It’s a brave new world for Drive-By Truckers and their latest album, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. Guitarist/songwriter Patterson Hood says…

The Postal Delta Zephyr
No Reservations
It’s nice to find guitar builders producing hand-made guitars that are more than a rehash of familiar models, while using…









































