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Harp Legend Charlie Musselwhite

Harp legend Charlie Musselwhite has recorded and performed with a stunning array of guitarists in his band – Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Robben Ford, Junior Watson, Charlie Sexton, Kid Anderson, and steeler Freddie Roulette to name but a few. Here, he takes the reins (strings?) himself, using his Gibson Nighthawk plugged into a Magnatone Varsity Deluxe to play a bit. In the May issue, we review his latest album, “Lookout Highway.” Here’s our review. Read Now!

Harp Legend Charlie Musselwhite

Harp legend Charlie Musselwhite has recorded and performed with a stunning array of guitarists in his band – Harvey Mandel, Luther Tucker, Robben Ford, Junior Watson, Charlie Sexton, Kid Anderson, and steeler Freddie Roulette to name but a few. Here, he takes the reins (strings?) himself, using his Gibson Nighthawk plugged into a Magnatone Varsity Deluxe to play a bit. In the May issue, we review his latest album, “Lookout Highway.” Here’s our review. Read Now!

Artists

This month, we feature The Meters’ George Porter, Tommy Emmanuel, Jedd Hughes, Dudley Taft, Lari Basilio, Ally Venable, The Police, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Dave Mason, Kenny Burrell, 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 […]

by Vintage Guitar
Classic Instruments

The Peoples’ Guitar

Gibson’s Depression-Era Exports

Many aren’t aware that some of the archtop guitars Gibson produced during the Depression were marketed under different brand names, including Kalamazoo, Recording King, Cromwell, Fascinator, and Kel Kroyden, among others. These shared similar features and construction techniques with the low-line Gibson-branded instruments such as the L-30 and L-50: a spruce top, mahogany body and […]

by L.B. Fred
Blackstar ARTIST 15 Home Feature
Newswire

Blackstar Nominated for NAMM TEC Award

Each year, the NAMM Foundation gathers artists, fans, and music-industry professionals for an evening celebrating the achievements of producers, engineers, creators, and companies. This year’s NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards (TEC) ceremony will take place January 21 in Anaheim, honoring technical achievement in 25 categories and creative achievement in eight categories. Blackstar’s Artist Series amplifiers have been nominated […]

Classic Instruments

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 10

Saga of The Lost Supersounds

In early 2009, VG columnist Peter Stuart Kohman turned his focus on Burns, the pioneering British guitar builder. We’ve compiled installments 9, 10, and 11 for this special edition of VG Overdrive. See the complete history. Electric guitars date back less than a century, but the stories of their development sometimes seem as lost as […]

Korg Nuvibe
VG Approved Gear

Korg Nuvibe

Big Box

Korg Nuvibe Price: $499.99 (street) Contact: www.korg.com Korg is not known as a guitar company, but to their great credit they worked with Fumio Mieda – developer of the original Uni-Vibe from 1968 – to resurrect his classic modulation effect as the Nuvibe. A late-’60s Uni-Vibe is like the snow leopard of guitar effects; seldom seen and […]

Classic Instruments

Guyatone Micro Effects

Little Boxes, Big Effects

Musical-instrument accessories importer Guyatone introduced its first series of Micro Effects three years ago to widespread praise. Knowing it was on to a good thing, the company recently added five pedals to the line for players looking to add new flavors of boost, drive, and other effects to their sound. The Micro Effects CB-3 Cool […]

Artists

Bob Devos

Update on the Organ Trio

Bob Devos says the idea for his new record, Shifting Sands, was pretty basic. “I wanted to record something that takes the organ trio or quartet sound into the future. Give it more of a 21st-century sound, not just re-create the old sound.” Devos knows a bit about bands that mix the organ and the […]

Artists

Al Di Meola

Still Elegant

For close to 45 years, Al Di Meola’s career has brimmed with guitar virtuosity, taking him from red-hot fusion to enchanting Latin and world-music textures. After a few years touring with a full-on electric show, he’s now mixing acoustics and solidbodies on his latest, Opus. We caught up with the master as he prepared to […]

VG Approved Gear

Keeley Electronics Dark Side

Floyd Explorer

In the multi-verse of effects, Robert Keeley’s gizmos are a thing of beauty – particularly those that provide multiple sounds. Guitarists hankering for fuzz, delay, and modulation will dig the Dark Side, which mimics the sounds of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. The fuzz is based on a 1977 op-amp analog fuzz with a 24-bit DSP […]

Classic Instruments

The Gibson Les Paul Special

Gibson’s Les Paul Special was the last of the original Les Paul “family” of guitars introduced, and it was the first to lose the Les Paul name. But that has not diminished its appeal to players and collectors. The Les Paul was not intended to be a “family,” but the success of the goldtop Les […]

Grant Geissman
Artists

Grant Geissman

Jazz-Rock Renaissance

’70s culture may have provided a target-rich environment for parodied depictions of giant Afros, bell-bottom jeans, and Saturday Night Fever, but anyone who was alive then remembers Chuck Mangione’s Feels So Good. Huge in 1977, the album remains symbolic of the jazz-pop that was strong at the time. The extended guitar solo on the title […]

Music

Ana Popovic

Power

Blues-rock barnstormer Ana Popovic’s latest is about love, perseverance, strength, and survival. After rising victoriously from 14 cancer treatments in 2020, Popovic continues to push the envelope of her artistry by dropping her unique blend of searing, hot-wired guitar within the context of funk, R&B, rock, blues, and pop. Power is the sound of a […]

VG Approved Gear

Jeff Senn Original Senn Model One

Making Perfect Senns

For 15 years, Jeff Senn has been building, repairing, and modifying guitars for Nashville’s touring and studio elite. His double-cutaway Fullerton and single-cut Pomona are in the hands of guys like Tom Bukovac, Jedd Hughes, Rob McNelly, John Fogerty, Steve Wariner, Bruce Springsteen, and Audley Freed After building tribute guitars, Senn recently returned to his […]

Music

Paul Reed Smith

Lions Roaring in Quicksand

The new album by guitar builder Paul Reed Smith and his band, Eightlock, offers soul-based sounds with deep grooves, three drummers, and three guitarists. Veteran drummer Dennis Chambers, bassist Gary Grainger, and guitarists Mike Ault and Bill Nelson (director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center) are fronted by vocalist Mia Samone Davis. Smith is […]

Artists

Fender Competition Mustang

Souped-Up Starter

So it’s no surprise that Fender built the Competition Mustang, a guitar marketed to players who might also be excited by the thrill of Monte Carlo and Formula One. Fender introduced its “student model” Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic in 1956 to compete with Harmony and Kay – an optimistic move long before the electric guitar was […]

Artists

David Ryan Harris

Songs For Other People

David Ryan Harris gets his greatest exposure singing and playing guitar around the world with John Mayer, but he’s been an accomplished songwriter for nearly 30 years. While he has a handful of solo albums and songwriting credits with Mayer, Dave Matthews, and Cassandra Wilson, he kept a handful of tunes for his new solo […]

Stephen Ulrich
Artists

Stephen Ulrich

Film Noir Guitar

The instrumental music of Big Lazy echoes of Hollywood soundtracks – scores from gritty detective flicks, suspenseful prison breakouts, and spaghetti Westerns. Guitarist Stephen Ulrich amps this up with an array of retro parts interweaving post-war jazz, blues, country, and rock and roll. In his hands, it all becomes guitar playing you can see as […]

VG Approved Gear

Guild’s B-240EF

Stop Your Frettin’

It would be easy to look at the price of Guild’s B-240EF and assume it’s just another low-end acoustic/electric bass – except that it plays like a much more expensive four-string and is a blast to explore. Who might want a four-string acoustic fretless? If a traditional electric fretless conjures images of jazz-rock fusion bassists […]

VG Approved Gear

Magic Magnets

TV Jones’ Starwood Humbuckers

Best known for making the vintage-sounding Magna’Tron, Power’Tron, and Supra’Tron pickups, TV Jones has expanded its well-regarded line to include pickups for Telecasters, Stratocasters, and Les Pauls. The TV Jones Starwood Humbucker sprang from an effort to develop a “dynamic,” well-rounded, and musical PAF-style pickup. Using proprietary steel pole screws, slugs, and magnet keepers, the […]

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