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MusicNomad is running a fun Valentine’s Day challenge for guitar players — and it’s a good one.
Has Your Guitar Been KISSed? 💋🎸 This Valentine’s Day, MusicNomad is asking one big question: Has your guitar been KISSed? Show your guitar some love with a KEEP IT SIMPLE,…
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“Buy That Guitar” podcast with special guests Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen
Season 03 Episode 10 In Episode 3.10 of “Buy That Guitar,” host Ram Tuli is joined by Robb Lawrence and Kim Shaheen. Robb’s experience in the vintage market spans from…
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Pieces of a Prototype
Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar
If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

Way Cool Version: Newman Guitars’ Honeycomb Chambered Jr.
Following Ted Newman Jones’ passing in 2016, protégé Jeff Smith took over Newman Guitars and is furthering the vision, using…

Anders Osborne
Making Tracks
When Anders Osborne, his band, and various friends went into the studio to work on what became Spacedust & Ocean…

Reverend’s Rick Vito Signature Soul Shaker
Built For Speed
Blues-/roots-rocker Rick Vito knows what he wants from a guitar, and the Reverend Soul Shaker is proof. An art deco-inspired…

Fretprints: Metallica’s Master of Puppets
Genre Giant
In 1984, Kerrang magazine coined the buzzword “thrash,” signaling the arrival of an unprecedented heaviness in rock music – not…

Fanny’s June Millington
Grrrl Power’s First Flash in Rock
Before The Runaways, before the Go-Go’s and Bangles, and before there were Riot grrrls, there was Fanny. One of the…

Reb Beach
There’s no two waysabout it – thanks to MTV dunces Beavis and Butthead, Winger gets no respect. But the band…
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VG Q&A: Harmony History
And an Archtop Mystery
I recently received two guitars as gifts and am trying to learn more about them. The first is a Harmony I believe is from the early ’70s. Its serial number…
ARTISTS

Kirk Fletcher
The Mid-life Crisis Sessions
Back from barnstorming the globe, blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher’s latest is music for the people. Heartache by the Pound is…

Mick Jones
Foreigner at 40
Somewhere in the world right now, a Foreigner song is playing on the radio. Literally. Thanks to nearly 20 mega-hit…

Belén Bandera – Jazz Soundscape
Spanish singer shines on “Arbre” Accompanied by Jaume Llombart’s beautiful playing on a ’92 Gibson ES-350T modded with a…

Eric Clapton
A Return To The Crossroads: Slowhand Meets Mr. Johnson
In many ways, 2004 marks a return to the crossroads for Eric Clapton. With his latest disc, Me And Mr.…
CLASSIC INSTRUMENTS

Robbie Robertson, 1943-2023
Lasting Legacy
It’s ironic that Robbie Robertson was famous mostly for his songwriting, because beneath the minimal, compositional style that marked his…
Earliest Gretsch 6120
…Revealed!
The Gretsch company rose to the upper echelon of guitar manufacturers in the 1950s with the introduction of a diverse…

1905 Gibson F-2
In the opinion of most American mandolinists, Gibson brought mandolin design to a level of perfection in 1922, with the…

1976 Hagstrom Jimmy
In the world of archtop guitarmaking, the legendary luthier James L. D’Aquisto (1935-’95) is considered one of the greats. A…
NEWSWIRE
APPROVED GEAR
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Live Wire
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Narrow(field) Win
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Take Flight

Danelectro Baby Sitar
Paint It Sunburst
Legend has it that during a break in the filming of Help!, George Harrison picked up a sitar left behind…
Providence Silky Drive and Stampede DT
Japanese Silk (and Stomp)
Providence Silky Drive and Stampede DT Price: $394 (Silky Drive); $249 (Stampede DT) Info: www.providence-ltd.com. From the Land of the…

Republic’s Classic Concert Ukulele
Dainty Device
National launched its first ukulele in 1927, combining a brass-bodied, nickel-plated uke with the sweet-sounding amplification of a resonator cone.…

The Dr. Z CAZ-45
Prescription Filled
When word got out in early 2020 that Mike Zaite and Alan Phillips (founder of Carol-Ann Amplifiers) were collaborating on…
WHAT ELSE IS NEW
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Five Alternative Club Classic Amps of the ’50s
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Remembering a Heavy Hero

Fire Custom Shop Sweet Chilli and Carpe Diem Overdrives
Brazilian Heat
There are some nifty analog effects pedals coming out of São Paulo, Brazil, nowadays, and among them, Fire Custom Shop…

Tommy Emmanuel
Accomplice Two
On this rich, diverse collection of duets, Emmanuel and Billy Strings get right to it with an exuberant medley of…

Willie J. Campbell
Be Cool
In the months before his passing in December ’22, blues bassist Willie Campbell (James Harman Band, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mannish Boys)…















































