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Win an accessory bundle with an Oxford Guitar Supply gift card, Music Nomad KEEP IT SIMPLE, SETUP (KISS)™ kit, Rocky Mountain Slides Co. Bear Claw Tri-picks, Firecracker Aluminum Slides and graphite picks, plus a Reverend back pack to put it all in valued at more than $450. Deadline is November 25, 2024. Complete the survey […]
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Perhaps because he died just prior to the Folk Boom and a few years before the Blues Revival, Bill Broonzy doesn’t get proper credit. Besides being the first American bluesman to tour England, where future stars of British rock and folk saw him perform, he was a major influence on Muddy Waters, who dedicated his […]
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VG Approved Gear
Teye Guitars Gypsy Queen
The Art of Tone
For Austin-based Teye Guitars, taking guitar construction to new artistic heights has been a basic tenet since their inception. Mastermind luthier Teye Wijnterp, an accomplished guitarist, forged his concept of playable art during years of touring. Today, players around the world, including Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, Zac Brown, and Grammy-nominated guitarist Joe Taylor, […]
VG Approved Gear
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, at the peak of folk, and through the Summer of Love. The company’s instruments brought distinctive styling, and it boasted a distinguished roster of players. In a nod to its past, Guild’s refreshed versions of […]
Music
Steve Vai
Vai/Gash
Recorded during two weeks in 1991, Vai/Gash is a collaboration between Steve Vai and late singer Johnny “Gash” Sombrotto, expressing their fondness for the rockin’ tunes of their youth and Harley Davidson culture. Sombrotto was an inspiring figure in Vai’s life who died in a 1998 motorcycle accident. After shelving the project for 30 years, […]
Artists
Larry McCray
All In the Family
“A lot of people…think [blues is] all the same. So I try to take that element out. I don’t want to restrict myself in terms of genre or influence.” It’s not hard to figure out why Larry McCray became a guitarist. “My dad was a musician,” he said. “Grandma played guitar, my other grandma played […]
Classic Instruments
Rickenbacker 481
It’s hard to imagine an instrument other than guitar that has undergone more innovation through its modern history. Perhaps we do an injustice to pianos and cornets, which have reached their perfected forms and not changed much in recent times, but you could fill volumes documenting the wrinkles put on acoustic and electric guitars. Some […]
Artists
Glen Campbell
1936-2017: A Legend Departs
The end of Glen Campbell’s journey was a matter of time once he and his family announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2011. With the media watching, his career ended with a farewell tour backed by a band that included several of his children. He was 81 when he died at a care facility in Nashville […]
Classic Instruments
Star Board: Carl Verheyen
In each issue of “Signal Chain,” we’ll take a guided tour of pro players’ pedalboards. We’re calling the feature “Star Board,” and we kick it off in this issue with a look at two of Carl Verheyen’s most-used pedal setups. Carl Verheyen’s “Pedalboard #1” Verheyen’s primary pedalboard for stage use has traveled the world with him. […]
VG Approved Gear
Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave and SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
Circuits Gone Wild
Fuzz and octavers are among the hottest pedals around, with some builders even melding them to great effect. The Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave is one such box. It’s designed for bass players, but guitar players will crave it, too. An all-analog design featuring silicon-based fuzz (fueled by two BC109 transistors, same as the […]
Classic Instruments
Gibson’s Style O Artist Guitar and K-4 Mandocello
Two For the Scroll
The mandolin originated in the Middle East as a bowl-back instrument. Crusaders brought it back to Europe and early Italian builders evolved the design, giving it four paired strings tuned like a violin but with a back similar to a lute (also of Arabic origin). In the mid 1890s, Orville Gibson revolutionized mandolin design, structurally […]
Music
Morphine
Journey of Dreams
No Guitar, No Problem
They were a band like no other – either before or since. That was the inevitable description of the rock trio Morphine, from critics to TV hosts to fellow musicians like Henry Rollins and Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin. The band’s self-described “low rock” hit you in your pelvis instead of your head, as stated by […]
Music
James Luther Dickinson
I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone/Lazarus Edition
Let’s get it straight from the get-go; Jim Dickinson was primarily a piano player. But he was also one of the great music makers of Memphis – which is saying a lot in a town whose lore included Sam Phillips, Stax’s Al Bell and Steve Cropper, the Ardent Studios and Hi Records crews, and many […]
Artists
Neal Schon
Spacesaver Sale
Eyebrows raise with news that a superstar guitar collector is preparing to sell iconic instruments. Alarms might trigger, even. But don’t dial 9-1-1 for Neal Schon. Holder of 800 instruments “…and counting,” Schon, co-founder of one of rock’s all-time biggest acts, recently discovered that his 15,000-square-foot storage facility was bursting at the seams. But his […]
VG Approved Gear
“Tremolo” Trio
Three new approaches to replacement vibrato systems
Three new aftermarket vibrato systems for common double- and single-cutaway solidbody guitars offer the convenience of “drop in” installation. Each system boasts unique features and improved performance. SuperVee Tremolo System Brainchild of designers Jeff Athrop and Marc Caldwell, the SuperVee is a direct-replacement (a.k.a. “drop in”) unit requiring no modifications, no drilling, and no routing. […]
Artists
Dana Sutcliffe
Here’s the Scoop
Many know Dana Sutcliffe from his classic guitar design, the Alvarez Dana Scoop produced from the late 1980s through the early ’90s. But most are likely unaware that today he runs a top-notch repair/restoration shop, Dana Sound Research (DSR), just outside Wilmington, Delaware. Did playing or working on guitars come first? Playing the guitar. I […]
VG Approved Gear
Area 51 The Alienist Voicing Boost
Manmade Tone Monster
Gather ’round, children, for a scary bedtime story. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as a high-gain amp. So, wizards built treble boosters – like the Dallas Rangemaster – to add high-end response. Other sorcerers came up with a Top Boost modification, which they added to the Vox AC30. Then a mad […]
Classic Instruments
MIM Hosts Stephen Stills and Ushers in Dragons and Vines Exhibition
On November 5th, Phoenix, Arizona’s Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) celebrated the opening of their newest exhibition, “Dragons and Vines: Inlaid Guitar Masterpieces.” Curators teamed up with Maryland-based Pearl Works to showcase the work of some of the most talented and skilled inlay artists and luthiers in North America. The display is a remarkable collection of […]
Classic Instruments
The Roland Space Echo
Perfect Slap-Back
When Brian Setzer kickstarted the Stray Cats into action in 1979, his gear lineup was a hodgepodge of orthodox rockabilly ware along with the bizarre. His ’59 Gretsch 6120 and his pomade were the real deal. But he played through a Vox AC50 Royal Guardsman because the band was first recording in England. To get […]