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GIVE YOUR GUITAR-LOVING FRIENDS THE GIFT OF VINTAGE GUITAR! And Treat Yourself to the classic VG 2025 wall calendar – FREE!

To take advantage of this fantastic offer, simply click SUBSCRIBE! Or call 1-800-844-1197 and mention code: JHLDY24 for a 1-year sub!


In the December ’24 issue of Vintage Guitar, the legendary George Benson discusses his new album, the forthcoming sale of select guitars from his collection, and another new twist – hosting a retreat where everyday players will rub elbows with world-class musicians. Here’s an excerpt.  From January 3 to 6, 2025, you’re hosting a musician’s […]

Win a Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale V2 pedal valued at $359! Inspired by the match-made-in-heaven of vintage effects found on 60s American amps, White Whale V2 sets out a new objective to pack bigger real spring reverb and tremolo sounds in the same pedalboard friendly enclosure (17 x 12,5 x 7,5 cm). The 3-spring […]

Hank’s Protos

How Hank Garland Helped Gibson Develop Two Models Not Called Byrdland

There are guitars, there are great guitars, there are great historic guitars and there are great historic guitars bearing deep provenance. And then there are guitars of such immense mystique, provenance, and cultural significance they are transcendent, shattering ceilings set by previous standards. Two such instruments were crafted by Gibson at the height of its […]

In Memoriam: Anthony Klassen

Anthony R. Klassen, a guitar builder and founder of New Era Guitars, passed away December 13 at his home in Furnessville, Indiana. He was 62. In 1977, Klassen got a ’64 Gibson Dove and became an accomplished player. He attended the American Academy of Art, in Chicago, then became a woodworker in Connecticut, favoring a […]

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Buddy Holly’s ’58 Magnatone 280

1958 Magnatone Custom 280

When guitarists talk tremolo or vibrato, you can bet the magnificent Magnatone amps will find their way into the conversation. The watery, warbling “true vibrato” that the larger Magnatones are capable of producing is never forgotten by players fortunate enough to have experienced it. In searching to expand the Magnatone legend, the subject is likely […]

National Dueco

Still Resonating

Blues man Charlie Parr recently philosophized in VG that National resonator guitars are as much mechanical creation as musical instrument, which is why maintaining the function of vintage Nationals comes with a special set of worries and woes. Since its founding in 1989, National Reso-Phonic Guitar has re-created many great vintage models – and remedied […]

Kirk Fletcher

Heartache by the Pound

Blues guitar master Kirk Fletcher returns with an album that mixes soul, R&B, blues, funk, and phenomenal guitar playing. Fletcher tricks the listener into thinking they’ll be hearing a pious ’60s soul record. Instead, it’s a heavy guitar album using American guitar styles as a backdrop to universal themes such as good love – and […]

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie plays The Blues... On Guitar

In a career spanning 45 years, Charlie Musselwhite has taken the blues to places it’s never been – literally (playing every corner of the globe) and artistically (on his two dozen solo albums and backing such diverse artists as Tom Waits, INXS, Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt, Eliades Ochoa, Eddie Vedder, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, […]

Guy King

Finding Joy

Israeli-born guitarist/singer Guy King has become a triple-threat musician since moving to Chicago. The playing, singing, and songwriting on his latest, Joy Is Coming, showcase his skills and versatility. How did the new album develop amidst such strange days for musicians? It was written before the pandemic – and mostly recorded before – but we […]

The Norma EG 470-2 Deluxe

Everyone of a certain age – and no doubt some younger folks – remembers the sage career advice given young Benjamin Braddock in the classic film The Graduate: “Plastics.” In 1967, such wisdom was humorous because young people knew business was full of “plastic people” in suits. So, it’s especially ironic that someone of a […]

Keeley Monterey Rotary Fuzz Vibe

Stomp Festival

Jimi Hendrix passed into infinity at the tender age of 27. The fact that his influential career lasted only four years over 45 years ago speaks volumes. A visionary former chitlin’ circuit guitarist imprinted the world with his virtuosity and meaningful art. Robert Keeley has created a tool that allows you to summon the textures […]

Christmas 1968

Vintage Guitar magazine Presents Greg Martin's Head Shop

This is a regular series of exclusive Vintage Guitar online articles where The Kentucky Headhunters’ Greg Martin looks back on influential albums and other musical moments. Well, it’s Christmas morning, I’m downing coffee, trying to get the brain fog to lift. As I was sitting next to the Christmas tree earlier, I reflected on Christmases […]

The Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine

Stately Shimmer

Famous for well-regarded interfaces, plug-ins, and vintage-gear emulations, Universal Audio has entered the pedal business with the Astra Modulation Machine, Starlight Echo Station, and Golden Reverberator. Each has an array of effect types modeled after a specific piece of gear, has a global control for each mode, and offers a variety of sounds that can […]

Greg Koch

Making It Work

The latest release from guitar master Greg Koch is From the Up’Nuh with his son, Dylan, on drums and B3-whiz Toby Marshall on organ. Collectively, they’re the Koch Marshall Trio, and they cover a lot of ground. Koch recently let us in on what he has been doing during the pandemic, and discussed the new […]

Joanna Connor

Best Of Me

With a decades-long career and a boatload of albums to her credit, slide queen Joanna Connor is no stranger to blues, rock, pop, soul, and the acoustic-folk tradition. On her new album, fans of extroverted slide guitar will dig hearing her tear it up on the funk-infused “Two of a Kind” and the severely rockin’ […]

Carl Bradychok and Don Leady

It Feels So Right and Poppy Toppy Gone
Roots Rock Generations

Those once considered the young guns of roots rock (Deke Dickerson, Dave Biller, Joel Paterson) are now “middle-aged.” So it’s encouraging to know that there’s a new generation of roots revivalists coming up – and at least one oldster still setting stages on fire. Michigan’s Carl Bradychok, 25, cut his first rockabilly album at 13 […]

Paul Mehling

Fab Four Gypsy of Tone

One of the world’s foremost Djangophiles, Paul Mehling has for many years been at the forefront of Gypsy jazz in America. The new album by Hot Club of San Francisco exhibits his affinity for the Beatles. On the cleverly titled John, Paul, George & Django, HCSF plays Beatles tunes arranged Gypsy-jazz style. “When I was […]

Fretprints: Tony Rice

Newgrass Fusion Master

The world lost one of its most innovative and defining guitar voices on December 25, 2020. Bluegrass maestro Tony Rice – singer, composer, supremely accomplished sideman, solo artist, and flatpicking virtuoso – personified the evolution of an American folk form and its cross-pollination with jazz, classical, and pop tangents. With Rice’s imaginative vision and prodigious […]

Sonny Burgess

1929-2017

Sonny Burgess, one of the last of the great Sun Records stars, died August 18. He was 88 and had been performing with his old band, the Pacers. Burgess was born on a farm near Newport, Arkansas, in 1929. After graduating from high school, in the early ’50s he began playing what he called “boogie […]

Wata

Mega-Decibel Fuzz

Anyone who digs fuzzed-out hard rock with amps pushed to their limit should add Boris to their play list. Hailing from Tokyo, the group has been fed and guided by meaty riffs and searing solos from guitarist Wata since its 1992 inception, with recordings such as Akuma no Uta (The Devil’s Song), Pink, and Altar, […]

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